§ Mr. GrahamTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) what action he intends to take to bring up to the standard required by the European Community the drinking water of Strathclyde regional council; and if he will will make a statement;
(2) what action he intends to take to bring up to the European Community standard the public water supplies which are at present above the European Community recommended limits for aluminium, manganese, iron and lead;
(3) what action he intends to take to reduce the aluminium content in the water supplied to consumers in Gourock/Linwool, and surrounding areas of Renfrew.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonResponsibility for the quality of public drinking water supplies lies with the water supply authorities, the regional and islands councils. Improvement works covering public water supplies which do not yet comply fully with the relevant EC directive (80/778/EEC) are in progress in Strathclyde region and elsewhere and programmes are reviewed regularly by the Scottish Development Department. Supply areas where the aluminium or lead standards may be exceeded are included in such programmes. The directive allows derogation for naturally occurring iron or manganese but in such cases water authorities make improvements whenever possible. Reduction of the aluminium content of supplies in the areas mentioned will be achieved by the introduction of new treatment works and refurbishment of others over the next few years. Water authorities were recently asked to provide updated programmes, with costs, of works required to bring all supplies up to EC standards.
§ Mr. GrahamTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will name the water reservoirs which supply drinking water in Scotland which at present cannot meet European Community standards;
48W(2) if he will name the water reservoirs in Scotland which supply drinking water and have received additional time to bring their water up to European Community required standards.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonAll public water supply reservoirs in Scotland meet the requirements of the European Community directive (75/440/EEC) on the quality required of surface water intended for the abstraction of drinking water. For details of water supplies which are the subject of derogation from, or delay in, compliance with the directive (80/778/EEC) relating to the quality of water intended for human consumption, I refer the hon. Member to the answer which I gave to the hon. Member for Gateshead, East (Ms. Quinn) on 7 February 1989, columns555–59.
§ Mr. GrahamTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what action he intends to take in response to the report submitted to Strathclyde regional council water and sewerage committee on 24 January on the capital expenditure required to overcome the deficiencies regarding the aluminium parameters in accordance with the requirements of the European Community directive and the possibility of completing the necessary works within the requisite time scale of the present level of capital spending.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe Scottish Development Department wrote on 31 January to all regional councils asking them to submit up-to-date programmes, with costs for individual schemes, of works to bring all supplies up to the standard required. Aluminium features prominently in these plans.
The need for improvements is taken into account in setting the capital expenditure allocations for authorities each year. On 12 December 1988 I announced a 14 per cent. increase in the planned provision for capital expenditure on water and sewerage services in 1989–90. The allocations shortly to be announced will enable faster progress to be made.