River Adur Environment Agency - a Better Organisation Works for the Public and Environment in England and Wales Has Specific Duties and Powers
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En v ir o n m e n t Ag e n c y River Adur Environment Agency - a better organisation works for the public and environment in England and Wales has specific duties and powers. for present and future generations. The Agency has funding of about The Environment Agency is one of the £585 million, 75 per cent of which is world's most powerful environmental funded from its own charges and the watchdogs, regulating air, land and rest from Government. water. As 'guardians of the environment' the Agency has legal Nationally, around 15 million hectares duties to protect and improve the of land are managed by the Agency along with 36,000km of rivers and environment throughout England and Wales and in doing so contributes 5,000km of coastline, including more towards 'sustainable development' - than 2 million hectares of coastal meeting the needs of today without waters. harming future generations. There are eight Created by the 1995 Environment Act, regional offices, the Agency started work in 1996. It is which are split into officially a 'non-departmental public 26 area offices. body', which means that the Southern Region covers the counties of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Front cover photographs: Main picture - New Shoreham from across the tidal harbour Top inset - Shoreham Harbour Bottom inset ■ Old Shoreham toll bridge and Saxon Church River Adur Warninglid High 1 H ayw ards S outhw ater H eath W estern | BoL.y The River Adur Historic Adur The river we know today is a mere show their past history, like the Tanyard shadow of its former self, occupying a Stream at Steyning, on the site of an valley carved through the tundra in the old tannery, now long gone, or the Ice Age by a torrent of meltwater Waterworks Sewer at Shoreham. In from the icecap north of London. At other cases, like Pocea Lea Sewer or that time the land was much higher Rooks Cross Sewer you can only and sea level much lower than they are speculate on how they came by their now. Since then erosion has softened names. In the past 'sewer' did not the landscape and the river valley mean foul water, as it does today, but through the South Downs has filled was a general term for a drainage with sediment as global warming and ditch. melting ice caused the sea level to rise. Until the latter half of the fifteenth With no glaciers to feed it, our modern century the rivers Arun and Adur Adur serves only to drain the land shared a common outlet to the sea at within its catchment and its flow Lancing. Their estuary was separated depends on rainfall, springs from the from the sea by a long shingle bank Chalk and, in the upper catchment, the similar to the one we see today at input from treated effluents from Aldeburgh in Suffolk. In time, the population centres such as Burgess Hill. movement of shingle from west to east The river derives its name from the (longshore drift) pushed the mouth of Celtic word Dwyr, meaning 'water'. the Adur towards Hove. The Arun The first record of the name Adur dates independently broke through the from 1612, previous names through shingle, which was subsequently the ages having been 'The Sore', 'The devoured by the sea. The only Beeding', 'Bramber Water', 'The Alder' reminder of earlier times is Widewater, and 'Shoreham River'. Names of on Lancing Beach, which follows the watercourses and sluices sometimes line of the earlier estuary. ------- The River A dur The Adur has been an important trade the present river mouth at Kingston route since Roman times, with ports at was established as a permanent Beeding and Old Shoreham. The feature, protected from longshore drift Normans built Bramber castle to by its long breakwaters. Shoreham control trade, but as ships grew larger remains an important port on the and the river silted up, inland centres South coast, administered by withered to be replaced by New Shoreham Port Authority. It no longer Shoreham early in the twelfth century. handles coal for the power station or All that remained of Old Shoreham the bulk wine tankers which were a was its Saxon church, which still faces feature in the 1960s; today's principal the Victorian Lancing College across cargoes are timber, refined oil for local the river. The wooden toll bridge is distribution and gravel dredged from much more recent and was in use until the sea. 1970 (cars 6d per crossing) when it Since the signing of Magna Carta in was replaced by the flyover on the 1215 land below high water mark has A27. been owned by the Crown for the New harbour entrances for the river benefit of the common people. Adur were cut through the shingle in However, land given away by the King 1 760, 1 775, 1800 and 1810, but all before that date is privately owned. silted up. It was not until 1821 that The tidal River Adur is claimed by the Duke of Norfolk, with the consequence there are no public rights of navigation or fishing. Permission for these activities should be obtained from Norfolk Estates in Arundel. Bramber village and castle o Adur Valley Geology and Hydrology In reality, the Adur comprises two wintering wetland birds. The tidal separate streams which share a river, which is 18km long, passes common estuary. The Western Adur through the South Downs via rises in the parish of Slinfold and flows Shoreham Gap, a valley designated as through Shipley and West Grinstead, an Area of Outstanding Natural whilst the Eastern Adur rises on Beauty. Ditchling Common and flows north The catchment area of the River Adur and west to pass between Haywards is approximately 500km2, with the Heath and Burgess Hill. The estuaries East Adur draining 167km2, the West of the two streams meet near Henfield Adur 143km2 and the tidal estuary and take a common course through 195km2. Henfield Levels - an area of unspoiled wetlands particularly attractive to Average rainfall over the catchment is dragonflies, damseflies and over 833mm per year. e The River Adur The Adur has a large number of small Water Quality in the tributaries which rise mainly on the Eastern Adur Wealden Clay. As a consequence they have little flow in dry weather, but rise Good road and rail communications rapidly after rainfall, in contrast to between London and Brighton have those tributaries such as Copyhold Gill encouraged the development of and Cowfold Stream which rise from commuter towns like Burgess Hill, springs on the Tunbridge Wells Sand Hassocks and Hurstpierpoint, resulting and have a reliable base flow. The in a large concentration of population southern tributaries are fed by prolific around the headwaters of this small chalk springs flowing from the scarp river. Additionally, the clay catchment face of the South Downs. In its journey and lack of springs make this river very to the sea, the tidal section of the river dependent on rainfall, so that in dry crosses first the Lower Creensand, in weather more than 87% of the flow in the Henfield area, then the Gault Clay the upper reaches may be treated and Upper Greensand, before flowing sewage effluent. From the 1960s to over alluvial deposits in its passage 1980s population growth in this area through the South Downs. outstripped the provision of sewage treatment works, so that effluents were The Environment Agency measures not always of sufficiently high quality river flow at gauging stations at to maintain the health of the river. Sakeham on the East Adur and However, a new sewage treatment Hatterell's Weir on the West Adur. The works at Goddards Green, serving data these provide enables the Agency Burgess Hill, has resulted in greatly to manage water abstraction from the improved effluent and river water river by way of the statutory quality. Abstraction Licensing system. However, the catchment is not heavily River Quality Objectives are set by the abstracted, most licenses being for Agency, which also uses a statutory agricultural purposes such as spray system of consents to control the irrigation. There are six small quantity and composition of all groundwater sources for public water effluents discharged to rivers. The supply, but no water is taken for this Agency monitors river water quality purpose from the river or its and samples effluents throughout the tributaries. year. Given the nature of the catchment and size of population, effluent conditions are rightly stringent. o Adur Valley - Beeding cement works and Water Quality in the 1940 defensive pillbox Western Adur Apart from a few small areas of mixed constantly vulnerable to accidental woodland, most of this catchment is spillages and pollution from farm agricultural land used mainly for wastes - particularly silage liquor and livestock farming. The clay soil and farmyard slurry. profusion of land drains make the river Agency Environment Protection Officers carry out a continual programme of inspections and visits to advise and encourage farmers to develop efficient waste management methods. A measure of their success is that for most of the time there is nothing to show for their hard work - people only notice when things go wrong! Adur Valley at Botolphs The River Adur Fisheries Whilst the tributaries and upper months. Their passage through the reaches of the river support a river takes them to the upper reaches population of small brown trout, where, in late December, they spawn bullheads and stone loach, it is the on shallow gravel beds. Sussex sea roach, dace and chub of the middle trout generally grow to a healthy size reaches which attract anglers.