Lancashire County Council Logo | Listen | Home | A to Z | Feedback | Complaints | Your Council | Business | Residents | Visitors |
Photograph of Morecambe Bay in Lancaster district
The article uses information derived from the (External) State of the Environment North West section of the Environment Agency website . The information is presented in two tables and covers waterways and bathing water quality.
Table 1 highlights the percentages of Good, Fair, Poor or Bad waterways in Lancashire districts as assessed by the Environment Agency chemistry General Quality Assessment (GQA). Total waterways per district vary dramatically across the authority, from just 0.2 kilometres in Blackpool (lowest in the North West) to over 200 km in the rural Ribble Valley district.
In total, Table 1 has details for 1,131.3 kilometres of waterways in the 14 Lancashire authorities, which represents 20.8% of the North West total.
For the North West as a whole in 2006, 92.1% of rivers were of good or fair chemical quality, which means that they have low levels of organic pollution and adequate levels of oxygen.
In comparison with the 2005 results that were detailed in a previous edition of this article (see archive section) the Lancashire figures for the past year are somewhat of a mixed bag. In 2005, 4.7% of the river length in South Ribble was classified in the bad quality category and a year later this remains the only section of waterway in the county in this category. In the poor category however there have been some yearly increases. Blackburn with Darwen and Pendle have moved from positions of zero poor classifications in 2005 to 13.4% and 9.1% respectively in 2006. Poor river quality results also rose in Lancaster, Preston, Ribble Valley and Wyre.
Photograph of the River Calder looking toward Whalley Viaduct in Ribble Valley district
It was not however all bad news and poor river quality figures were lower in Chorley, South Ribble and West Lancashire. Rossendale District recorded a significant improvement in its good river quality classification with the percentage rising from 54.2% to 79.8%. In South Ribble, the percentage in the highest classification also rose from 16.2% to 35.7%. For these two areas, the improvements were primarily the result of improvements to river lengths previously classified as 'Fair'.
Lancashire has benefited over the years from improvements to drinking water quality, and the county also experiences fewer of the type of water supply restrictions that are more prevalent in parts of the South East. The (External) local reservoirs and land assets owned by United Utilities as part of their land assets in the North West form important wildlife habitats and are also popular recreational facilities. The United Utilities website lists (External) details of water quality and other investment projects by local authority .
South Ribble district, as mentioned earlier, is the only Lancashire authority to have a proportion of its river length classified under the 'Bad' water heading (4.7%). This represents just under 2 kilometres of rivers in the authority and equates to around 0.18% of all Lancashire rivers. The North West percentage of bad river quality declined significantly from 1.5% to 0.8% over the year to 2006. Further improvements will be achieved by tackling bad river quality areas in Knowsley (26.6%) and Wirral (25.3%). The significant reductions in the worst category in the year to 2006 were underpinned by major improvements in Barrow-in-Furness and Warrington.
Many human activities and their by-products have the potential to pollute water. Large and small industrial enterprises, the water industry, the urban infrastructure, agriculture, horticulture, transport, discharges from abandoned mines, and deliberate or accidental pollution incidents all affect water quality. Pollution may arise at point source, such as discharges through pipes, or may be more dispersed and diffuse. Both sources may be exacerbated by adverse weather conditions.
The North West coast is bounded by the Irish Sea. Although relatively small (it has only about 6% of the volume of the North Sea), the Irish Sea receives significant inputs of contaminants from direct discharges along its coasts, and from diffuse agricultural and urban sources. Through a multi-million pound European funding stream, the Environment Agency has worked with international partners to improve coastal and recreational waters.
The Environment Agency samples North West beaches approximately 20 times per week between May and September, to assess the performance against bacteriological standards laid down in the Bathing Water Directive. The Defra website contains details of the (External) 1976 EC Bathing Water Directive .
Photograph of St Annes-on-Sea in Fylde district
The long-term tendency has been for more and more beaches to meet the European mandatory standards. A reversal of this trend was caused in 2007 with the wettest summer ever recorded and the latest 2008 results are also somewhat of a mixed picture.
In 2008, 32 out of the 36 bathing waters sampled in the North West met the European mandatory standards, of which six met the more stringent guideline standard. This left four beaches that failed the mandatory standard.
Of the 11 Lancashire beaches, it was not possible in 2008 to obtain a sample at Blackpool North because of the major redevelopment work that has been taking place (External) along the sea front in the town . Please also note that the (External) sea front at Cleveleys has also received a major facelift, which started in November 2005.
In 2007 St. Annes North passed the most stringent (guideline) standard, but for 2008, none of the Lancashire beaches attained this standard, but on the other hand none failed the mandatory standard. They were therefore all listed as being compliant with the mandatory standard.
The Environment Agency is not the only source of information on the quality of beaches. The (External) Marine Conservation Society publishes a (External) Good Beach Guide that lists results for the 11 Lancashire beaches as part of its yearly survey of 1,200 UK beaches.
Central Government has set (External) 198 priority mesaures for local government and flood and coastal erosion risk management is indicator number NI 189. It is defined as the percentage of agreed actions to implement long term flood and coastal erosion risk management plans that are being undertaken satisfactorily. The (External) Environment Agency will be responsible for the forthcoming catchment flood management plans.
This page was compiled by Bryan Moulding .
All enquiries from the media should be sent to Corporate.Communications@lancashire.gov.uk .
Any other questions about the content of this page may be sent to EconInfo@lancashire.gov.uk .
For all enquiries about the county council's services , contact the Customer Service Centre on 0845 0530000 (01772 530000) or at Enquiries@css.lancscc.gov.uk .
Printer Friendly Version | About our website | Top of page | Office of the Chief Executive Copyright © 2009, Lancashire County Council | Site Terms (External) Tell us what you think about our site...