§ Mr. BarnesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment his Department has made of the water quality in the rivers Drone and Rother; and if he will make a statement. [51847]
§ Angela EagleThe Environment Agency is responsible for monitoring water quality. The General Quality Assessment (GQA) scheme classifies stretches of rivers into six classes of chemical water quality, from A (very good) to F (bad), based on biochemical oxygen demand and concentrations of dissolved oxygen and ammonia.
The Agency advises that the River Rother is classified as class C (fairly good) from its source, near Clay Cross, until Danesmoor, where it falls to class E (poor). The river improves to class D (fair) downstream of Wingerworth and further improves to class C just downstream of the River Hipper. It then fluctuates between classes C and D until Woodhouse Mill sewage works in Sheffield, where it becomes class E until it meets the River Don on Rotherham.
The River Drone is too small to be classified under the GQA scheme until it flows through Dronfield. It is then classified as class E for 4.2 km until its confluence with the Rother.