As part of her regular work on monitoring the protection of water quality in the River Loddon, Maria Miller MP met with officials from the Environment Agency to review the most recent data and plans for the coming year.
Maria said, ‘’It cannot be overstated how important it is for the future of our community to keep the River Loddon healthy. The river is at the centre of our local ecosystem. The Environment Agency (EA) have a duty to monitor the health of our river after concerns were raised almost 2 decades ago, driven by high levels of house building increasing pressure on the sewage works which uses the Loddon between Chineham and Old Basing to discharge treated wastewater. Monitoring the health of the river is done on a regular basis by EA environmental experts and the data is made public on their website.
“There was one unplanned discharge of sewage last year, which is one too many, and now, because of a change in the law by this Government, Thames Water must continue to work towards that number being zero.
“The Environment Agency reported that because of new technologies being used at the Chineham sewage works, the cleanliness and heath of the river remains unchanged; this is monitored through the vibrant plant and invertebrate levels in the river. Not only is this good for local ecosystems, it also demonstrates that water quality has been at a good level for a sustained period.
”We already have one of the tightest possible permitting levels on discharges from Thames Water into the Loddon, and it is likely this will be tightened further this year to the lowest technologically possible. So when councillors are agreeing the new Local Plan they must take this environmental constraint into account. We cannot continue as we have done over the past 50 years when it comes to future levels of house building-the technology is not yet available to enable our local river to cope.
"Keeping the Loddon clean is crucial for the whole community because of it's importance to our local environment. I will continue to work with Thames Water, the Environment Agency and local action groups to help ensure our river network is properly protected as we work towards a cleaner, greener Basingstoke.’’
