§ Mr. Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what has been the general rate of improvement or decline over the last 10 years in(a) the north-west river systems and (b) the south-east river systems; and if he will make a statement about his additional plans for clean-up and tightening of regulations;
(2) which pollutants were present and at what level in the River Mersey system (a) in 1980 and (b) at the present time;
(3) which pollutants were present and at what level in the River Thames (a) in 1980 and (b) at the present time.
§ Mr. Heathcoat-Amory[holding answer 19 March 1990]: General trends in river water quality between 1980 and 1985 can be established from the report of the 1985 river quality survey of England and Wales, a copy of which is in the Library of the House. More recent information on a directly comparable basis is not currently available, although the National Rivers Authority (NRA) will be conducting another national survey during 1990, the results of which will be published in 1991.
The classification system used for recent river quality surveys gives an overall measure of the levels of pollution in a river: detailed information on levels of individual pollutants can be obtained from the public registers maintained by the National Rivers Authority. These include the results of the analyses carried out of routine samples taken of river water, and the registers available for inspection at the National Rivers Authority's Thames and North West regional offices contain data obtained from sampling at many sites on the Thames and the Mersey respectively.
The responsibility for maintaining and improving river quality now rests with the National Rivers Authority, which will be advising my right hon. Friend on the statutory quality objectives he will be setting in 1992. It will then be for the National Rivers Authority to see that these objectives are achieved.