§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will(a) make a statement on the mg/litre threshold for permissible nitrate levels contained in the Nitrate Vulnerable Zone Directive and (b) publish the Environment Agency's data on nitrate levels in rivers located in the Macclesfield parliamentary constituency. [54041]
§ Mr. MeacherThe information is as follows:
- (a) The Nitrates Directive requires identification and protection of surface waters that contain, or could contain if action is not taken, 50mg/litre of nitrate. This threshold is based on standards laid down in the Drinking Water Directive (75/440/EEC).
- (b) The Environment Agency's monitoring data on nitrate concentrations in rivers located in the Macclesfield parliamentary constituency has been made available in the Library of the House.
§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the Environment Agency's data on nitrate levels in rivers located in the Macclesfield parliamentary constituency; what comparison she has made of these data with the 50mg/litre threshold contained in the Nitrate Vulnerable Zone Directive; for what reason farmland located in the Macclesfield constituency is included in a nitrate vulnerable zone; and if she will make a statement. [54042]
§ Mr. MeacherThere are currently no existing nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZs) in the Macclesfield parliamentary constituency.
55WThe Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC) requires action programmes for reduction of agricultural nitrate pollution to waters to be applied either throughout the whole territory (Option 1 in our recent consultation for England) or within specific NVZs (Option 2).
Under Option 1, farmers throughout the whole of Macclesfield parliamentary constituency would need to apply Action Programme measures.
Under Option 2, an indicative map showing the location of possible new NVZ areas, as identified in an initial assessment, was published in the consultation document "How should England implement the 1991 Nitrates Directive", in December 2001. Parts of the Macclesfield parliamentary constituency were included in these areas because they were parts of river catchments which contained one or more monitoring points where nitrate levels have been shown, through statistical analysis of the data, to have exceeded the levels specified in the Nitrates Directive.
We are refining our assessment of these failing monitoring points to take account of data anomalies and long-term nitrate concentration trends. We are also carrying out more accurate mapping work to identify precisely which parts of each catchment would require designation as NVZs. As was explained in the consultation document, such refinements are expected to alter some of the possible NVZ boundaries illustrated in the consultation document.
A decision on how the Government intends to implement the Nitrate Directive will be announced in due course.