Posts Tagged ‘pollution’
UK Rivers Fail New EU Standard
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
The Environment Agency has reported that three quarters of the rivers in England and Wales fall below a new European environment standard.
On a positive note water standards have improved across the UK for the 19th year in a row and wildlife is returning to a vast majority of the rivers.
6,000 rivers were surveyed and only 5 were classified as ‘pristine’. Environment groups are asking for tougher action to be taken to improve Britain’s water ways.
Improvements have been made over the last 20 years but the Environment Agency knows that things could be better.
The improvements in water quality have led to the return of some species which were at one point thought to be in terminal decline along some stretches of Britain’s rivers.
Otters, eels and Salmon have all returned to the Thames, Mersey and Tyne.
Despite these improvements the new European Water Framework Directive which became law in the UK in 2003 sets a much higher quality standard. It uses a much wider and more sophisticated range of tests to determine the water quality.
Under the new directive only 5 rivers satisfy the highest standards and they are situated in remote areas of Northumberland and Wales. 117 rivers have been newly classified as ‘bad’ these include stretches of the rivers Trent and Stour.
The Environment Agency has accepted that they need to act now to protect our waterways for future generations. They have announced the introduction of new measures which aim to improve more rivers by 2015.
The River Basin Management Plans include tackling discharge from sewage works, limiting the removal of water from rivers and preventing pollution from farmland and built up areas leaking into our watercourses.
It is important that we do something about the state of the UK’s rivers now rather than just hoping it will sort itself out. It is time we thought about future generations and made more of an effort to protect our planet.
Tags: Environment, Environment Agency, EU, EU standards, pollution, rivers, water, waterways
Posted in Environment | 2 Comments »
Pollution Threatens British Beaches
Friday, November 21st, 2008
British beaches were once something to be proud of but according to Surfers Against Sewage (S.A.S) almost 1/3rd (32.3%) of English and Welsh designated bathing beaches failed to meet UK guideline standards for water quality during the 2008 bathing season.
An article on the S.A.S website states that out of 495 designated bathing waters in England and Wales 160 could not meet the tougher of two water quality standards set by the European Union to protect public health and the environment from faecal pollution at bathing waters.
You would think that these guidelines had just come in to existence but they have actually been set for 32 years under the 1976 EU Bathing Water Directive. It is understood that changes in UK weather conditions are causing the problem, making it increasingly difficult to meet the standards set out by the directive.
In the last 2 years Britain has seen extremely wet summers, which has highlighted how vulnerable our nation’s beaches are to the adverse effects to water quality after periods of heavy rainfall. The government have put massive investment into the nation’s sewerage infrastructure but it has had little effect on curving the problem of water pollution.
The S.A.S point out in their article that a solution which reduces the impact of heavy rainfall on future water quality results, should not just fall on the shoulders of the nations water companies but it will require co-operation from a large number of authorities.
Tags: Beach, European Union, Ocean, pollution, Sea
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How to Give Your Home Life a Green Makeover
Friday, March 14th, 2008
There are so many challenges facing the earth today: more trash, more people, more pollution, less space and fewer green places. With so much going on, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and apathetic. After all, what can one person do to combat all of these different problems?
It may sound incredibly cheesy, but it’s important to realise that you really do have the power to make a difference. Think about it-if nobody does anything to help because they don’t think their actions matter, then the world and the people in it will just keep moving along the same old self-destructive path. But, if everyone does something to help, we may actually be able to start putting things right.
Tags: Environment, pollution
Posted in Environment | No Comments »