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Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Answer

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to prevent farmers from dumping effluent in rivers. [148830] Mr. Morley: The dumping of effluent in rivers is an offence under the Water Resources Act (WRA) 1991. The Environment Agency (the Agency) is responsible for regulating discharges of effluent to watercourses and issues discharge consents under Schedule 10 of the WRA. In all cases, consents are subject to strict conditions to ensure protection of the receiving water. It is rare for a consent to be issued to a discharge of farm effluent because of the difficulty of achieving the standards necessary to protect the watercourse. It is accepted practice that slurry, manure and dirty water from farm buildings is contained and usually applied to land in accordance with the relevant sections of Defra's Code of Good Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Water. The Control of Pollution (Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil) Regulations 1991 (and as amended in 1997) specify the size, design and construction standards that must be used for structures built since 1991 and used for storage of these specified materials. These Regulations also provide powers for the Agency to serve a notice, requiring action to avoid pollution, on a storage structure of any age where the Agency considers there is a serious risk of pollution. In addition, both Defra and the Agency publish a wide range of relevant advisory literature which is available to farmers.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

417 c389W; 148830

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Farms Pollution Pollution control Regulation Waste disposal Rivers Manure

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk