Pollution and Illnesses on the River Tavy
Article Date: 30/03/2015
Peter Thorn, our Regional Waterways Advisor for the South West, is now on the South West Recreation and Conservation Forum. Through this role Peter has raised the ongoing issue of pollution on the River Tavy. For the next meeting a statement from South West Water has been issued – you can see the full text of this below. Peter is particularly looking for any evidence of paddlers falling ill after paddling the stretch of the river below Tavistock. We have many reports of river users falling ill following discharges from the Tavistock Sewage Treatment Works, particularly at times when the discharges have occurred during low flows in the river.
If you have fallen ill after paddling the Tavy below Tavistock please contact Peter via [email protected].
In addition, please also let us know if you have experienced similar issues on other rivers around the country. Poor water quality after bad weather, or after sewage discharge events can be a real problem on many of our rivers, and British Canoeing is actively representing these concerns through our role in partnerships across the country. Please contact [email protected] if you have any feedback on your local waterways.
File Note from South West Water (SWW):
SWW’s response to an issue raised by Mr Thorn (Canoe England) under minute 4
Recreation and Conservation Forum minutes 8 October 2014.
At the October Forum, we discussed the consented role of Combined Sewer Overflows across the world – essentially to act as a legal safety valve to protect people, property and
public places from sewer flooding especially during or after periods of intense or prolonged rainfall. At times, the current system can become overloaded with surface water. The cost
of separating the historic water and waste water pipe network is considered prohibitively expensive in the short term. In shaping our 2015-20 business plan customers asked us to concentrate on what they value most and, with input from our environmental regulator and agreement from our economic regulator, that is what we plan to do. Longer-term, our 25-year vision to 2040 outlines our aspiration to continue to carry out separation work at those sites most at risk of failure during extreme wet weather events and where there is a proven environmental need. This work would be undertaken progressively in line with customers’ willingness to pay. We try to reduce pressure on the system in many ways. For example, we have already added more than 216,000 cubic metres of storm water capacity, the equivalent of 86 Olympic-size swimming pools. We are also working with partners on our innovative Upstream Thinking initiative. This includes work on Exmoor to block up drainage ditches to allow the peat and moss to capture and store rainfall that could otherwise flood downstream areas. In urban areas, we are working with councils and others to develop sustainable
drainage solutions.
There is also a huge amount of work to encourage businesses and householders to take some responsibility by not blocking drains with fats, oils and grease, or wet wipes and
sanitary items. Regarding the specific query about the River Tavy, the EA’s public register of consented discharges and abstractions, shows that the majority of consented discharges on the Tavy
cover non-South West Water activities such as private sewage, trade effluent and agriculture. It is apparent that the sources of potential pollution in rivers can vary and that raising standards of river water quality is a partnership effort – from regulators, the farming community, local authorities, businesses and waste water companies. Everyone has role to play, and you may wish to consider raising similar concerns with other parties. SWW’s operations are covered by permits from the Environment Agency and there is no requirement to monitor intermittent discharges in waters than are not designated for bathing or shellfish. However, after discussion with the EA, our 2015-20 business plan does make provision for investing in 650 new event duration monitors across the region.
This will include areas of high amenity use and the installation of some monitors along the Tavy including Tavistock Crowndale site, with an indicative completion date of 31.3.16. This
site is flagged as an EDM1 or High amenity site with the Environment Agency, and as such is a high priority site for monitoring. There are a number of other sites in the Tavistock area
that are also planned to be completed with the same indicative completion date. Final delivery dates will be agreed as the work is planned for delivery in clusters to ensure efficiency in delivery. Once the monitors are installed and fully functioning, the data will go to the EA and on to their ‘public register’.
M S Read
SWW Business Services & Sustainability Director ‘