Southern Water applies for permission to draw water from rare chalk stream | Water industry

Southern Water asked for a dryness prescription which would allow him to draw more large quantities of water than usual from a rare and rare chalk river.

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, was invited to intervene and prevent the water company from “damaging the river and ecology inside considerably and potentially”.

Southern Water applied to Reed for a dryness prescription to modify his license on the river test, a rare chalk stream in the Hampshire which houses salmon and endangered otters. The order would allow the company to draw higher quantities than usual water and would allow Southern to continue to shoot from the test, even when it falls below flow levels, scientists judged ecologically sure for the river.

When rivers fall at low flow levels, they can take years to recover, with potentially serious effects on the Frai of Fish and the health of rivers. The river ecosystem can die due to the lack of oxygen, according to experts.

Yorkshire water has also applied to Reed for a drought order on the Oouse River in York and the Environment Agency for 14 drought permits on its navigable lanes, which are intended for smaller or shorter changes in abstraction licenses. Drought orders are more serious and are granted by the Secretary of State, because they often allow more or more urgent changes in the abstraction of water or reductions in river flows and can be more dangerous for the environment.

South and Yorkshire water (with the Thames and the Southeast) have prohibitions of pipes in place. The sector was criticized for having omitted to build tanks and repair the hoses that disclose, while attention has also focused on large remuneration packets allocated to certain bosses of the water company. The Guardian recently revealed that the boss of Yorkshire Water has received 1.3 million pounds of additional wages that have not previously disclosed since 2023, paid by an offshore parent company.

The test operates at low levels depending on data from the United Kingdom Ecology and Hydrology Center. It is a flow of chalk, of which there are only about 200 worldwide, including 85% in England. These very pure rivers are full of minerals of chalk aquifer and create a habitat like Biodiversity than a tropical forest.

Feargal Sharkey, water activist and former nuances leader, said Reed should intervene urgently. “The river test is the leading world chalk stream. The entire British wild salmon population is now on the list intended. order.”

Stuart Singleton-White, the head of the campaigns of The Angling Trust, said: “No one should be surprised by drought this year, so shortly after drought in 2022. It was predicted, and in a changing climate, we need. But the water companies were not ready.

Southern water has applied to modify the flow of hand-allowed current (HOF) of the river, a flow level of the minimum river, measured in megaliters per day (ml / d). The current license prohibits the abstraction if the flow of the river falls below 355 ml / d, but it has now requested a temporary drought order to reduce this threshold to 265 ml / d.

A spokesperson for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Department said that the Secretary of State would make decisions on these dryness orders and allowed “in due course”.

A Southern Water spokesperson said: “We follow a strict legal process, established by the government and regulators, to ensure that we take the right measures to continue to provide water to our customers and to mitigate any negative environmental impact at the same time.

“We asked for a drought prescription on Friday July 18 for the river test in accordance with this, but that would only be necessary if the river flows fall below 355 million liters per day – which allows us to continue to take water so that the taps on the move.

“We continue to monitor the levels closely and are not currently close to this trigger. It is thanks to households and companies in Hampshire and the island of Wight using less water, and our teams attack leaks and optimizing our water network 24 hours a day.

“In the longer term, a new tank, water recycling diets and water transfers from neighboring areas are among the solutions that will strengthen drought resilience for this area.”