HC Deb 02 December 1987 vol 123 cc915-6
3 Mr. Allan Roberts

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he is taking to reduce the levels of nitrate and nitrite pollution in Britain's rivers.

The Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Nicholas Ridley)

I am considering a number of initiatives for strengthening and extending water pollution controls and expect to make a statement on the Government's policies in the near future. In due course the National Rivers Authority will be responsible for maintaining river water quality.

As to drinking water quality, I have decided, after taking legal advice, that the term "maximum admissible concentration" in the European Community drinking water directive should relate to individual samples and not to averages over a period. This is a technical point. It concerns the appearance of water supplied and does not have health implications.

Mr. Roberts

I do not accept the Secretary of State's last remark about this being a technical point. It is about the quality of drinking water and this question is about river quality. Will the Secretary of State confirm that over the past few years river quality in Britain has deteriorated because of pollution from sewage, animal slurry and nitrates and nitrites, mainly from agriculture? As well as getting into drinking water and being linked to stomach cancer, these pollutants flow via the rivers into the North sea, over-fertilise the photo plankton, de-oxygenate the North sea and create conditions in which fish cannot live. Will he act on the recommendation of the Select Committee on the Environment and on the recommendation in the final draft declaration of the recent North sea conference of Ministers, to which he was a signatory, to declare nitrate protection zones, or is the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food still holding up that declaration?

Mr. Ridley

The hon. Gentleman's question is about nitrate levels in Britain's rivers. Nitrate levels in most rivers have remained fairly constant over the past 10 years. Very few water supplies with raised nitrate levels come from river sources. The hon. Gentleman asked about the progress of the North sea conference, which I chaired last week. I can tell him that we agreed on a substantial reduction in inputs of nutrients, which include nitrates, in those coastal and estuarial waters where nutrients are a serious problem. That means the shallow waters off Denmark and Germany and to some extent off Holland and not, on present evidence, British coastal waters. I am certainly considering whether to create nitrate protection zones and I expect soon to come to a decision.

Mr. Budgen

Does my right hon. Friend agree that this is yet another example of the environmental disadvantages of the common agricultural policy? Does he further agree that if farm products were priced at a lower level farmers would no longer find it economically justified to put very large quantities of nitrogen on their crops?

Mr. Ridley

I am not sure that my hon. Friend is right. I certainly do not think that this is a question with which to put into doubt our membership of the Community, which seems to be what my hon. Friend was doing. As farm incomes decline, I think that the farmer will be tempted to use more nitrates to try to bring about increased production at reduced cost.

Mr. Dalyell

Is the legal advice to which the Secretary of State refers any better than that which is usually given to him?

Mr. Ridley

It is all impeccably good.