Environment Agency consultation on flow standards

21 January 2013 Environment Agency consultation on flow standards

The EA has today published their supplementary consultation on flow standards for regulating hydropower abstraction.

It is vital for securing the hydropower industry's existence and ability to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and for the ecology of watercourses, that the Agency adopts a rational approach to setting both risk based and proportionate guidance and permitting rules.  The EA proposes four options but does not limit responses to those.  I will be posting a draft response to the consultation on this website and distributing it to mha members by email, inviting comment before a final submission on behalf of the mha.  The consultation document is also available here.  Note that EA's Option 1 is basically emulating SEPA guidance for high head schemes already in place for Scotland.

The consultation is open for 10 weeks closing on 2 April 2013.