EA-Thames MID Middle Thames Fact File This is one of a number of Fact Files which cover all the They also identify a number of key issues which need to main rivers in the Thames Region of the Environment be addressed in the area, requiring integrated and Agency. Due to its size and importance the Thames itself sustainable management. These include: is covered by four Fact Files, dealing with the Upper • improving the water quality of some Thames Thames, from source at Thames Head to Eynsham, the tributaries; Middle Thames from Eynsham to Hurley and the Lower Thames from Hurley toTeddington.The fourth Fact File ensuring the adverse impact of former landfill sites deals with the Tidal Thames through London. and other contaminated land on the environment is minimised; • protecting and enhancing the ecological, fisheries, landscape and archaeological resources of the Middle The Thames and implementing strategies for their future management. The production of each LEAP involves a number of key Middle stages: • Consultation Report - a broad review of the plan area, the activities and uses that put pressure on the Thames environment. It defines issues to be tackled and suggests actions for resolving them. The Environment Agency • Action Plan - establishing a vision for the area, The Environment Agency for England and Wales is one of firming up the issues and describing the actions we the most powerful environmental regulators in the world. believe should be undertaken in the next five years. It provides a comprehensive approach to the protection • Annual Review - reporting on the progress of those and management of the environment, emphasising actions and providing an opportunity to update or prevention, education and vigorous enforcement bring in new issues and actions that have arisen wherever necessary. The Agency’s creation on 1st April during the previous year. 1996 was a major step, merging the expertise of the National Rivers Authority, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of The Middle Thames is made up of two LEAP areas: Pollution, the Waste Regulation Authorities and several Thames, Pang and Wye (consultation report due 1999) smaller units from the Department of the Environment. Thames and Ock (consultation report published 1997) The Environment Agency is committed to improving wildlife habitats and conserving the natural environment The plan areas and particularly the Middle Thames itself in all it undertakes. constitute a resource of great environmental, recreational and historical value. Our key tool for the integrated Eynsham management of the local water, land and air environment is the development of Local Environment Agency Plans (LEAPs). These geographical areas are based on surface water catchment and contain a comprehensive survey of local natural resources, pressures on these resources and the consequent state of the local environment. ord FACTS IN BRIEF Middle Thames Planning Liaison • The Middle Thames runs from Eynsham to Hurley. The Environment Agency works with local planning authorities to This part of the Thames runs through a protect the Middle Thames catchment from undesirable development. predominantly rural landscape as well as passing through Oxford, Reading, Abingdon, and the historic Saxon town of Wallingford. • In 1757 a curious custom was recorded at Eynsham. Pollution When the bounds of Cumnor Parish on the Berkshire bank were beaten once a year, the ferryman at Swinford brought the vicar the sum of six shillings and eightpence in a bowl of water. The Prevention and vicar then crossed the river and took hold of the reeds on the Oxfordshire side, laying claim to the whole breadth of the stream. Environmental • The Henley Royal Regatta ‘Hr* ^ - "* fT r f r 1 had its formal * - beginning at a ' a Quality public meeting v * in Henley Town • Industrial and waste regulation March 1839. | ( ^ _____________ The Agency is responsible for regulating the most complex and • Below Dukes Cut, Oxford, is a side stream that leads polluting types of industrial process for air, land and water. to Wolvercote Mill where paper was made for Responsibility for monitoring air quality is split between the Agency Oxford University and its press from the early and other organisations such as local authorities and the Department of seventeenth century until 1943. the Environment. The Agency regulates air quality by operating the • The main weir at Sandford falls with great force Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) system for certain industrial into the pool below, known as the Sandford Lasher, processes, which stems from Part I of the Environmental Protection Act and has long been notorious for drownings. A stone 1990. This includes authorising seven Part A obelisk stands in the middle of the weir carrying processes (large scale complex processes) in the the names of five men who drowned there. Middle Thames Area to release certain types and • A mile below Nunehatn a stream diverges from the Thames. This is the Swift Ditch which was once the quantities of chemicals to the air in addition to main navigation channel of the Thames. After 1 790 discharges to sewer and surface waters. The it reverted to its present course through Abingdon. Agency monitors releases from Didcot Power • At Sutton Courtenay during the 17th century an Station and has agreed an improvement unusual pound-lock was built partly beneath the programme for the station with National Power. ground floor of the mill. This meant that it could Ifflcy Wetland The Agency licences, regulates and supervises the handling, storage and only be used at the expense of water from the disposal of controlled waste under the Environmental Protection Act milling business and consequently a heavy toll was 1990. Controlled waste consists of household, industrial and levied by the miller until a new lock was opened in commercial waste. The Middle Thames area contains a number of 1809. licensed waste sites and a large number of old and closed landfill sites. • Church Cottage, Pangbourne, is where Kenneth Groundwater contamination from these closed landfill sites is not Grahame, creator of Water Rat, Mole and Mr Toad considered to be a significant problem, although redevelopment of a from Wind in the Willows lived. number of old waste disposal sites within the valley gravels in the • A medicinal spring flows at Goring which a 1 7th Marlow area will be monitored for contamination through century authority said was good for corns, ulcers construction activity. and sore eyes. • Mapledurhain corn mill, the oldest mill still The most significant operational site is the landfill at Sutton Courtenay. working on the Thames, was adapted in the early The site is engineered to prevent groundwater pollution, as are the 20th ccntur) to pump other main operational landfills at Ewelme and Sutton Wick. reservoirs and drive a J ™ Radioactive substances are another category of waste. The Radioactive d f 1 Substances Act 1993 defines how radioactive materials can be kept and manor's electricity. used, and how radioactive wastes can be accumulated and disposed of. ^ _______ The Agency is responsible for administration and enforcement of this on the Thames at Act, through registrations and authorisations. Eynsham and Whitchurch - the only toll bridges Sites in the Middle Thames area using radioactive materials and dealing anywhere on the non-tidal Thames. with their disposal are Harwell. Amersham International pic, • The rivers Cherwell,Thame, Pang, Loddon and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UKAEA Culham, Safeguard Kennet are major tributaries of this part of the International, Culham and the hospitals and University of Oxford. Thames and these are covered in separate Fact Files. Public access to information under the Radioactive Substances Act is Another tributary is the Ock. available from the Agency’s Public Register. ENVIRONMENT AGENCY The Environment Agency is responsible for the planning Abstractions of water resources, including reviewing and publishing demand forecasts and planning for how these may be Water can only be abstracted from river or groundwater satisfied without unacceptable impact on the water under licence granted by the Environment Agency. In this environment. part of the Thames both groundwater and rivers are important sources of supply. The total amount licensed in the area is about 1,360 Ml/d (million litres per day), but much of this water is discharged back into the river after Water use. All licences specify the maximum amount of water that may be taken and are checked by the Environment Agency’s Licence Inspectors. Resources Some of the notable licensed abstractions are: A strategy for the sustainable management of water Didcot Power Station resources was published in 1994 and focuses on Authorised to abstract up to 170 Ml/d (43,638 ' opportunities to improve water efficiency, use of existing Ml/year) for cooling. Much of the water is returned resources, and the development of new schemes. One to the river Thames after use and less water is taken such scheme being considered includes the Thames Water when the river is low. proposal for a pumped storage reservoir south-west of Thames Water - Gatehampton Abingdon. The proposal not only involves abstraction Authorised to abstract up to 87.4 Ml/d from the River Thames during times of high flow, but (21,333 Ml/year) from river-side boreholes during times of low flow the release of water back to the for Public Supply. Most of the water abstracted is river for abstraction downstream in London. In used and returned to the river via