Seems Wyesham had three fish yesterday -stressed early am but apart from a fish from Redbrrok a couple of days ago not much else reported and the upstream drought of fish goes on with seemingly no end in sight despite the small rises.
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Latest news regarding the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon Project. I saw a brief mention about it on teletext but found this article on the BBC Wales website. The link is: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-53566011
Lets hope this is the end of this project.
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Realy nice fish for Cecil Teague. 35lbs
First of the 1978 season Two more 20 &21 the same day.
This you might find errr interesting;
Thank you for writing to us about the River Wye following the widely publicised Algal blooms on the River earlier this year, we too share your concerns about these blooms and are working hard to better understand any potential causes to ensure that work can be targeted appropriately to deal with the causes.
Work is currently being done to fully review our data on Phosphate levels on the Wye and its tributaries. This data is used to classify the water quality under both the Water Framework Directive (WFD) targets and the much tighter Habitats Directive (HD) targets.
Whilst much of the Wye is achieving ‘High’ or ‘Good’ status under WFD, there are some tributaries that that are failing, and it these tributaries where further work to understand this is ongoing. Our data review against the Habitats Directive is currently underway and will be published as soon as this is completed.
All classification results to date are available on Water Watch Wales website at:
Whilst the long-term trend is that phosphate levels on much of the Wye and its tributaries are falling, there are sections where this is not the case and this where we need to carryout investigations to determine why, working with farmers, landowners and water companies to ensure regulatory requirements are being met. The increase in intensive poultry units is clearly an important change within the Wye catchment and we need a robust evidence base to understand the impacts and to work out the best way forward for the environment and everyone involved.
For the poultry sector NRW has a role issuing planning advice for these developments. Where proposed developments are for less than 40000 birds, the local planning authority are responsible for completing a Habitats Risk Assessment (HRA) where there is a risk of impact on any SAC. Those units with a capacity of more than 40000 birds also require an environmental permit from NRW who, as the Competent Authority for Environmental permitting will also complete an HRA.
All permits that we have issued (>40000 birds) can be viewed on our website at: https://naturalresources.wales/permits-and-permissions/check-for-a-permit-licence-orexemption/?lang=en.
Work is also being done reviewing and improving guidance to support planning decisions for intensive agriculture. The review of the guidance note GN 20 is currently out to consultation. The key proposals are: changes to the screening distances; removal of the 1% insignificance threshold for in combination assessments; and mapping of sensitive sites where detailed assessment and tighter controls are likely to be needed. These changes could be significant, particularly for areas like Powys where due to the numbers of developments the in-combination effects are potentially more significant. When these guidance notes were first developed the insignificance threshold was an established approach introduced to simplify the system, and the likelihood of so many developments close together was not really foreseen.
There is other work ongoing to ensure the potential impacts of changes in agricultural practices are managed in a sustainable way. The Wales Land Management Forum is taking a cross cutting approach to sustainable land management, and the Welsh Government Intensive Agriculture Working Group is looking particularly at planning and environmental issues. The group is working on producing a technical advice note TAN to support planning decisions for intensive agriculture.
The proposed draft Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2020 would provide changes in controls for nitrate application to land and would make some of the key code of practice requirements statutory. Although these draft regulations focus on nitrates, clearly for organic fertiliser controls for nitrates will also have impacts for phosphates and other concurrent substances. NRW has worked closely with WG in the development of these regulations.
Clearly there is a lot of work currently focussed on these issues, which should lead to some significant developments to move towards the principles of the sustainable management of natural resources, and our Wellbeing Goals.
Kind Regards
Martin Cox
Pennaeth Gweithrediadau Canolbarth Cymru/
Pennaeth Gweithrediadau Canolbarth Cymru/
Head of Operations Mid Wales
Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru / Natural Resources Wales
03000 653880 / 07768173460
Bwcle, Sir Fflint / Buckley, Flintshire
03000 653880 / 07768173460
Bwcle, Sir Fflint / Buckley, Flintshire
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