Written question asked by Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour) on Monday, 27 October 2008.

Waterways: Rivers

Question: asked Her Majesty's Government:Which rivers in the United Kingdom have been studied using the system developed by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology to measure endocrine disruption from steroid oestrogens; and whether the results are available to the public.

Answer: The predictive model used in the Catchment Risk Assessment of Steroid Oestrogens from Sewage Treatment Works, commissioned by the Environment Agency from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, includes 357 river catchments split into some 10,313 river reaches (21,452 km) covering 122,000 km² of the inland waters of England and Wales. Estuaries and coastal waters, and sewage treatment works serving very small communities, were excluded from the model. The model predictions of risk have been mapped in an Environment Agency Science Report—SC030275/SR3 Catchment Risk Assessment of Steroid Oestrogens from Sewage Treatment Works, which can be found on its website in the publications catalogue.

Secondary information