Buckinghamshire Council publishes hard-hitting report on pollution of the County’s rivers and chalk streams

Calling for urgent action to protect the County’s rivers and chalk streams, the report’s key conclusions include that the water industry is the single biggest contributor towards poor water quality in the region. The report also found that five of Buckinghamshire’s rare chalk streams are being polluted with effluent from sewage treatment works, in addition to pollutants in surface water running off local roads, which include decomposing plant and animal matter, and by-products from vehicles such as oil, tyre fragments, hydraulic fluids and anti-freeze.

Buckinghamshire Council has therefore this week pledged to lobby water companies and the Environment Agency to do more to tackle polluted watercourses across the county. In particular, the Leader of the Council will write to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs over its concerns over the Environment Agency’s lack of engagement, the discharge of its statutory functions and its conduct. The Council will also ask Anglian Water and Thames Water to submit annual reports on progress in reducing pollution into the County’s rivers and chalk streams.

“It is essential we understand the full situation to lobby groups hard on behalf of our residents to improve the quality of our precious watercourses. Our rivers and chalk streams are an essential part of the fabric of Buckinghamshire and their importance cannot be over-stated. It’s a matter of urgency that this work is given priority by water companies and the Environment Agency and that we start to see real change and deliverable solutions to improve water quality in Buckinghamshire.”

“Chalk streams are an extremely rare and globally threatened habitat. With only about 300 in the world, the Chilterns AONB has nine of these special rivers, five of which are in Buckinghamshire. We are therefore hugely grateful to Buckinghamshire Council for carrying out this review and for its pledge to put pressure on those who have the fate of these special rivers in their hands.

“This report contributes to the body of evidence that shows how urgently we need improved legislation, enforcement and investment from the government and water companies to properly tackle the problem of sewage discharges into our rivers and seas. We must avoid at all costs the UK being branded the Dirty Man of Europe again, as it was before the Water Framework Directive (2000) and Bathing Water Directive (2006) were introduced.”