Advances in Water Treatment and Enviromental Management

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP: THE ROLE OF THE NRA 15through the Government’s Environmental Protection Bill which is currentlyon passage through Parliament. In this the concept of integrated pollutioncontrol is set out for processes producing particularly dangerous substances,which will be known as “prescribed processes”. The basis for IPC is theobjective of controlling the discharges of such substances to land, waterand air, and such processes will be authorised under a single system ofcontrol. The Bill removes from the NBA the responsibility for a large numberof industrial processes and for probably 80% of all industrial discharges.The NRA whilst fully supporting the concept regrets that the system isbeing introduced in such a way as to take away these responsibilities sorecently given it by the Water Act. The NRA is thus having vigorous exchangeswith the Department of the Environment to ensure that the return ofresponsibilities to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Pollution (HMIP) will notreduce the effectiveness of pollution control in the water environment. Theproblems of dealing with mixed sites where prescribed and non-prescribedprocesses co-exist must be resolved and at present the NRA is in the processof drawing up a Memorandum of Understanding between itself and HMIPin order to resolve this difficulty.CONCLUSIONThe NRA has been set up with a very wide range of duties and responsibilityas set out in the Water Act 1989. Duties cover all aspects of aquaticenvironmental management but this paper has concerned itself solely withquality matters.The NRA as presently constituted is the largest environmental protectionagency in Europe, and will remain so despite the introduction ofintegrated pollution control. The NRA is an independent agency outside ofGovernment and absolutely determined to carry out the duties that it hasbeen given, and in this respect has already demonstrated its ability anddetermination to carry out this role thereby gaining widespread publicsupport. We intend to be firm but fair with polluters and discharges andto achieve the objectives of improving and maintaining water quality andto this end regard ourselves as the guardians of the water environment.