[Richardgw]

This could be interesting

River Wye pollution prompts High Court review

Charity River Action has claimed the Environment Agency have failed to protect the River Wye.

www.bbc.co.uk

Well done but they picked the wrong regulator. They should have gone against the Welsh Government and Natural Recources Wales (NRW) as they are the regulators in Wales, and it is in Powis where most of the chicken farms are and where sweet fa is being done about the accumulation problems with more and more intensive poulty units being allowed.

The EA only have responsibility for England and can argue that they have taken on 4 additional farm inspectors for the English part of the Wye catchment as well as having a big hand in holding up planning developments in the Lugg valley until the developers can prove they will be phosphate neutral. We also have tougher farming regs in England compared to Wales.

 

[gwelsher]

We can only hope they win and are then able to go after the others.

 

[OURTREV]

This is a bit rambling I'm afraid but I'm not a lawyer so I'll get my apologies in first.
As usual it's a bloody mess and the best of luck to River Action who have my full support. It's not just about restoring the water in the Rivers to a state much cleaner than we have at the moment but by doing so protecting the creatures in it.

When NRW was established 2012, it was agreed that lead responsibility for the management of migratory salmonid stocks and fisheries within the River Dee and Wye would sit with NRW. The Environment Agency would continue to take the lead for the management of migratory salmonid stocks and fisheries within the River Severn Estuary and River Severn catchment. This is recognised through a formal memorandum of understanding between NRW and the Environment Agency. So for me that means that the NRW is responsible for the WYE the water and the creatures in it.

The two organisations collaborate closely with respect to the management and regulation of all migratory salmonid fisheries operating within the Cross Border river catchments (Dee and Wye) and the River Severn.
Both sets of officials agreed a common set of rules/byelaws for anglers in 2020 which last until 2029.
So my reading and recollection of all that is that the NRW made the byelaws for anglers the EA adopted the same byelaws and both parties act for each other in respect of maintaining the rivers, so we the anglers are being controlled and it also proves that the relevant officials on both sides can work together to a common end.

There are rules/byelaws for others who must also be regulated and controlled to the same end and action should be taken against them now.

 

[peterchilton]

Trev it gets complicated when NRW find their 'partners' to do the work that they are responsible for, maybe its Afonydd Cymru or WUF (or both now), they take their cut for salaries etc, do what work they can, report to NRW the success which is then tested in house (or often not), the success is often completion of something rather than an achievement where something has been improved and the cycle goes on.

 

[OURTREV]

I've just put a post on the Ross Angling Club website. Ross Club are supporting River Action in their action in the High Court.
Ross Angling Club back River Action charity in the High Court. - Ross On Wye Angling Club

Hopefully other organisations will follow their example.

River Action challenges Environment Agency for failing to protect rivers from agricultural pollution - River Action UK %

 

[JamesMeredith]

This could be interesting

River Wye pollution prompts High Court review

Charity River Action has claimed the Environment Agency have failed to protect the River Wye.

www.bbc.co.uk

3,000 tonnes of it are entering the river every year, accumulating at a rate of almost 3st (17kg) per hectare when the national average is just over 1st (7kg) per hectare.

Interesting use of units? Metric tonnes and then...stones? Sorry complete aside

 

[rightangle]

For those of you who delight in translating management clap-trap into English please go to the WUF website and click onto "The Dime Project." You will have hours of fun trying to unravel what it actually means.

 

[OURTREV]

For those of you who delight in translating management clap-trap into English please go to the WUF website and click onto "The Dime Project." You will have hours of fun trying to unravel what it actually means.

Thank you Rightangle I felt my eyes glazing over within seconds. 😶

DIME - A Project Update | The Wye and Usk Foundation (wyeuskfoundation.org)

Absolutely reiterates the views of Peter in his post 104 above.

 

[budge]

Something that I can't get my head around relating to the amount of chicken sh1t being produced and spread on the banks of the Wye. I watched the programme with Paul Whitehouse that highlighted the problems facing the Wye with all the chicken farms. I then watched another programme that had a farmer complaining about the increased cost of imported fertilizer. Surely there's an opportunity there to kill two birds with one stone and alleviate both problems ? Or am I missing something ?

Sent from my CPH2127 using Tapatalk

 

[Grassy_Knollington]

Something that I can't get my head around relating to the amount of chicken sh1t being produced and spread on the banks of the Wye. I watched the programme with Paul Whitehouse that highlighted the problems facing the Wye with all the chicken farms. I then watched another programme that had a farmer complaining about the increased cost of imported fertilizer. Surely there's an opportunity there to kill two birds with one stone and alleviate both problems ? Or am I missing something ?

Sent from my CPH2127 using Tapatalk

Chicken S*** is high in the element Phosphorus in the form of Phosphate, plants need phosphate as nutrients but the soil has limited capacity to fix or hold Phosphate hence large amounts run into our rivers.

The other main fertilising element is Nitrogen, in the form of Nitrates. Plants and soil organisms can fix or hold greater quantities of Nitrate than Phosphates. Nitrogen fertiliser production is highly energy intensive and this is the type of fertiliser that the farmers above refer to….

 

[OURTREV]

Chicken S*** is high in the element Phosphorus in the form of Phosphate, plants need phosphate as nutrients but the soil has limited capacity to fix or hold Phosphate hence large amounts run into our rivers.

The other main fertilising element is Nitrogen, in the form of Nitrates. Plants and soil organisms can fix or hold greater quantities of Nitrate than Phosphates. Nitrogen fertiliser production is highly energy intensive and this is the type of fertiliser that the farmers above refer to….

This is reflected over and over almost every week, certainly at Ross, with phosphate readings that go up and down and are roughly in line with rainfall and season whereas my nitrate reading are consistently low. No science particularly just reflection. Trev.

 

[budge]

Chicken S*** is high in the element Phosphorus in the form of Phosphate, plants need phosphate as nutrients but the soil has limited capacity to fix or hold Phosphate hence large amounts run into our rivers.

The other main fertilising element is Nitrogen, in the form of Nitrates. Plants and soil organisms can fix or hold greater quantities of Nitrate than Phosphates. Nitrogen fertiliser production is highly energy intensive and this is the type of fertiliser that the farmers above refer to….

So basically the spreading of sh1t doesn't serve much purpose other than a convenient way to get rid of it ? I was only pondering this as I have previously bought pelleted chicken manure sold as garden fertilizer.

Sent from my CPH2127 using Tapatalk

 

[peterchilton]

So basically the spreading of sh1t doesn't serve much purpose other than a convenient way to get rid of it ? I was only pondering this as I have previously bought pelleted chicken manure sold as garden fertilizer.

Sent from my CPH2127 using Tapatalk

It’s unlike farmers to miss a financial opportunity …… hold on I bet wuf will start selling it

 

[budge]

It’s unlike farmers to miss a financial opportunity …… hold on I bet wuf will start selling it

If it gets it away from the river it's got to be an improvement ? Knowing this country though the stuff I bought was probably imported from China

Sent from my CPH2127 using Tapatalk

 

[Grassy_Knollington]

So basically the spreading of sh1t doesn't serve much purpose other than a convenient way to get rid of it ? I was only pondering this as I have previously bought pelleted chicken manure sold as garden fertilizer.

Sent from my CPH2127 using Tapatalk

Yes

Excessive Nitrates can be very damaging and eutrophication (where bodies of water build up excessive nutrients) is a real problem. To help control this, farmers have limits on the quantities of Nitrogen fertiliser they can buy and spread per Ha on their land.

Chicken s*** is extremely high in Phosphates and there are no statutory limits for phosphorus on farmland. Most of the chicken unit planning applications detail how they will remove manure by spreading on adjacent land. They’re pretty much just tipping chemicals into the river.

Anyone with more than half a brain cell would realise that this practice is wrong, but it’s hard to do the right thing when some big Agri business turns up and offers you £50k p/a to host a chicken unit that they will operate & staff & run on your land.

There’s a really good WSA paper on the subject.

 

[JamesMeredith]

So basically the spreading of sh1t doesn't serve much purpose other than a convenient way to get rid of it ? I was only pondering this as I have previously bought pelleted chicken manure sold as garden fertilizer.

Sent from my CPH2127 using Tapatalk

The pelleted stuff has an npk of 4-2-1 so is a relatively weak fertilizer. I use it on my bonsai trees, that are in inorganic soils! This is only part of the story though, because is depends on how thickly you spread it and the form it is in. Not all fertiliser is in a form that is available to plants, and some is very soluble and just runs out.

Generally composted manure is much better for the ground, in terms of growing plants in it. There is a theory that there is more than enough nutrients in the soil, the problem is making it available to plants. Spreading compost a) makes the soil spongey and absorbs more nutrients rather than letting them run away and b) encourages the growth of symbiotic fungi that make nutrients available to plants. Spreading muck does none of this. In no-dig gardening you apply no fertilizer at all, just compost. The results are fantastic.

It would be interesting to hear what putting poultry litter through a biodigester does for it in terms of getting it ready to spread?

 

[meyre]

I bring only good news

Have returned today from Reykjavik and the NASF salmon summit ( Day 1 of 2 ) . Most positive; the logic of removing open net farming at sea to contained/ recirculated RAS or Flo-thru land based units is clear and to be adopted...this is marvellous where you have a small population with a co-operative government bent upon sustainable profits and production. Oh yes and the Norwegian Gov is to put a 40% tax on the profits of their 1'000'000 mt of home made and slightly poisonous salmon produced in the 'commons' waters.
Open sea farms will not disappear overnight but in some places they will go.
Iceland is rejoining NASCO. afterc14 yrs absence.

Moreover apart from NW Scotland our rivers do not contend with escapees and lice storms...so we're streets ahead there
and really should have anything up to a 39% advantage in numbers smolts and so many more mature fish than if Mowi had farms under the Severn Bridge.

Also I am firmly informed by a chicken farming neighbour than since the middle of last year all spoil from farms in Herefordshire are banned from local spreading and his are whisked away to the Cotswolds...there to improve the Windrush and Colne perhaps.

Just need to find some adults in charge of enforceable legislation to have all of Powys and Herefordshire's manure gathered , processed and used at profit and away from the rivers. Also to stop WW and co tipping daily sewage from every underdeveloped sewage plant . Not so hard really ?

 

[Bullet]

For those of you who delight in translating management clap-trap into English please go to the WUF website and click onto "The Dime Project." You will have hours of fun trying to unravel what it actually means.

Omg! There seems to be far too much of this sort of twaddle about all over the place these days, not sure about the English for it, but the Anglo Saxon is definitely Bull ****.

 

[Aled]

Great to see Lynn Woodward Davies on Countryfile tonight, remember seeing her on Country Women back in the 90's a really enjoyable tv series. Cheers. Aled

 

[Richardgw]

Country File this evening I thought gave a hard hitting and balanced view of the pollution problems in the river and for once didn’t hold back on the chicken farming issues. As for NRW they came across as totally ineffectual, blame everybody else and do nothing attitude, which is my experience of meeting with them at Wye LFG meetings.

One thing I noted was that Welsh Water said that worst of the phosphate load from sewage came not from the CSOs, but from the treated sewage and that phosphate strippers are being gradually installed on their works to reduce this. Their work in this area highlighted by recent publicity about improvements at Kingstone works as reported in post 84 of this thread.

However, there was also mention of a phosphate test reading of 64 times the legal limit. This was recorded by OURTREV at the canoe launch in the park at Ross last year, which is below a CSO (the one Angela Jones was filmed looking into) but above the outflow of Ross Sewage Works. The reading on the same day about half a mile below the sewage works outflow being only 22 times the legal limit (a link to Trev's report is below). This does question Welsh Water’s statement as to whether it is the CSOs or the treated sewage that is the larger source of phosphate from human sewage. Of course they are legally charged to deal and need to be be held accountble for both.

Shocking phosphate testing results. - Ross On Wye Angling Club

I’ve been testing the Wye for phosphate pollution for two and a half years now and I thought I would never see a reading as high as the one I had today at the Canoe Launch in the Park. I test at two locations on Club waters as part of a project run by the Wye Salmon Association, one on Weirend...

rossanglingclub.co.uk