HC Deb 03 May 1990 vol 171 cc613-4W
Mr. Redmond

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what arrangements are made by his Department to record the effects of pollution by aerial reconnaissance.

Mr. Trippier

Satellite and aircraft reconnaissance is used by my Department's contractors according to need. It has many applications but usually in conjunction with ground-based monitoring and surveillance techniques. Examples include surveys of vegetation cover change in the countryside, radiometry, tracking of air pollution plumes and trajectories, and detection of phytoplankton blooms in the seas around the United Kingdom. Applications to record the effects of pollution are more problematical although some experimental work on detection of environmental damage in forests due to air pollution and other stresses, for example, disease and drought, has been undertaken. Similar work is undertaken by other Departments and the Natural Environmental Research Council, according to need. The most notable example of the programme of aerial surveillance of marine oil pollution undertaken by the Department of Transport.

Mr. Redmond

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the minimum requirements for the National Rivers Authority to (a) record and (b) publish its investigation into pollution of (i) water and (ii) flood defences.

Mr. Heathcoat-Amory

The duties of the National Rivers Authority in relation to both water pollution and flood defences are set out in the Water Act 1989. The NRA is required to prepare an annual report on its activities which must be laid before both Houses and published. The authority is also required to record information about its regular monitoring of water quality and related matters in public registers which are held in the authority's regional offices. The particulars which are to be contained in the registers are set out in the Control of Pollution (Registers) Regulations 1989.

In addition, the authority publishes, from time to time, reports and other information on matters for which it is responsible.