Water Cycle Study - March 2010 - North West Leicestershire District ...

Creating the environment for business
4.2.3 Groundwater
In the context of the Water Framework Directive, the water environment includes rivers, lakes, estuaries,
groundwater and coastal waters out to one nautical mile. For the purposes of river basin management, these waters
are divided into units called water bodies. The quality of water in groundwater bodies is defined by both
quantitative and chemical status in the River Basin Management Plans. The groundwater bodies in the study area
are generally designated as having a good quantitative status, but in the Tame Anker and Mease catchment area the
chemical status is generally poor.
Aquifers that are used for public water supply have designated protection zones around the abstraction source to
prevent pollution of the underlying groundwater. Within North West Leicestershire, source protection zones are
located in Coalville, Whitwick and Measham and its surrounding area, covering the villages of Chilcote, Appleby
Magna and Stretton en le Field.
4.2.4 Designated Sites
The legislative drivers for the water quality are presented in Table 3.1, which includes European legislation to
protect receiving waters and their dependant habitats that are considered particularly sensitive. The sites present in
the study area are presented in Figure 4.5, with tables of their designations in Appendix D.
River Mease SAC
The River Mease is a small lowland river designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Site of Specific
Scientific Interest (SSSI) on account of its vegetation and freshwater fish communities. The current condition of
the SAC is unfavourable. The unfavourable status is primarily related to elevated nutrients, in particular ortho
phosphate. Phosphorous in rivers can be sourced from agricultural sources and from sewerage.
The outcome of a planning appeal for development within the catchment of the Packington wastewater treatment
works is currently awaited. The issue of water quality in the River Mease was a major issue considered at the
inquiry, with the Environment Agency and Natural England providing evidence on the water quality issue of ortho
phosphates in the river (see Section 5.1.1 for more detail). The results of the monitoring of this element are
presented in Figure 4.4 below, taken from the Agency’s proof of evidence at the public inquiry.
The red line in Figure 4.4 represents the target quality of ortho-phosphates of 0.06 mg/l as set by the Habitat’s
Directive. The black triangles represented actual concentrations of ortho phosphate as measured by the
Environment Agency’s routine sampling and monitoring programme. The graph clearly demonstrates that the
ortho phosphate levels are elevated significantly above the desired target value between February 2005 and July
2009.
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19 March 2010