§ Dr. John CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the levels of arsenic detected by the South-West water authority in the river Tamar on a regular sampling basis in the vicinity of Gunnislake, Devon, over the last 10 years.
§ Mr. RidleyThe South West water authority has taken frequent samples from the river Tamar at Gunnislake bridge since mid-1984. All 113 samples meeet the "imperative" values for arsenic in the EC directives on the702W quality of surface water abstracted for drinking water (75/440/EEC). Indeed, all but one were below the limit of detection.
§ Mr. BurtTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what preparations are being made for the introduction of the scheme, as provided for in the Water Bill, which will enable the new National Rivers Authority to make charges in respect of discharges into rivers.
§ Mr. HowardI have today issued a consultation paper which sets out the basis for a new charging scheme for consents for discharges into rivers, estuaries and other controlled waters. Our proposals for the scheme have been widely accepted as marking an important extension of the principle that polluters should pay for the costs of their activities.
In future, costs incurred by the proposed National Rivers Authority in granting discharge consents and in monitoring effluent quality and its impact on receiving waters will be met by the dischargers themselves, rather than by water consumers or taxpayers. The dischargers are for the most part water and sewerage undertakings and industrial dischargers of waste water.
The scheme will come into effect following the establishment of the proposed National Rivers Authority later in the year under the Water Bill currently being considered in Parliament. Details will be finalised by the Department, in conjunction with the National Rivers Authority Advisory Committee, and in the light of the views expressed by interested bodies in response to this consultation paper.
The Government envisage that a substantial proportion of the NRA's total costs for water quality regulation and pollution control will be recovered through the charging scheme, with charges likely to be set according to the size and type of the discharge.
Separate provisions already exist to ensure that the cost of cleaning up pollution incidents are recovered from those responsible for them. Similarly, discharges of trade effluents into sewers will continue to be subject to charges by water undertakings under separate provisions.
A copy of the consultation paper has been placed in the Library.