Water Pollution (Hansard, 7 November 1988)

§ Mr. Butler
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has on the presence of trichloromethane in drinking water sources in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Moynihan
The Government have established as a national standard a three-monthly average of 100 microgram per litre of trihalomethanes containing chlorine. Trichloromethane is one of the commonest trihalomethanes. Fourteen supplies currently exceed that standard but steps are in hand to achieve compliance with the standard.

§ Mr. Butler
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will take steps to ensure that drinking water complies with the World Health Organisation 1984 guidelines on permissible nitrate levels.

§ Mr. Moynihan
The Government's policy is to comply with the nitrate standard in the EC directive relating to the quality of water intended for human consumption, which is broadly comparable with the WHO 1984 guideline.

§ Mr. Blunkett
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer of 31 October, what powers the National Rivers Authority will have to require improvement to surface, underground and coastal waters, once it has sampled effluent and other matters discharged into those waters.

§ Mr. Moynihan
The consent of the National Rivers Authority will be required for all discharges to surface, underground and coastal waters. The authority will be able to review, and vary or revoke, conditions attached to such consents for the purposes of maintaining or improving water quality and to take appropriate enforcement action where these are not observed. It will also have powers in relation to the establishment and operation of protection zones; for taking precautions for the avoidance of pollution risks; and to undertake emergency works for forestalling or remedying pollution.
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§ Mr. Boyes
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he wrote to the 10 water authorities in England and Wales asking for the cost of rectifying the problem of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in drinking water supplies; and what response he has had.

§ Mr. Moynihan
[holding answer 4 November 1988]: The Department wrote to water authorities on 1 November asking them to carry out surveys of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in drinking water beyond present monitoring requirements. The information provided by these surveys should enable authorities to cost and develop remedial programmes should these prove necessary.