Draft Lower Wear Catchment Plan

Consultation Document - June 2012

Produced by the Wear Catchment Partnership CONTENTS

CONTENTS...... 2 1 INTRODUCTION...... 4 1.1 WHY DO WE NEED A PLAN?...... 4 1.2 A PARTNERSHIP APPROCAH...... 4 1.3 HOW DOES THIS FIT INTO WHAT IS ALREADY BEING DONE?...... 4 1.4 OUR VISION...... 4 1.5 A PLAN TO DO THIS...... 4 2 WHAT CHARACTERISES OUR RIVER?...... 5 3 WHAT WE WANT TO SEE HAPPEN?...... 6 3.1 THEME 1: INFLUENCING AND AWARENESS...... 7 3.2 THEME 2: WATER QUALITY...... 9 3.3 THEME 3: BIODIVERSITY...... 10 3.4 THEME 4: PLANNING AND FLOOD RESILIANCE...... 11 4 ACTION PLAN...... 12 4.1 THEME 1...... 12 4.2 THEME 2...... 12 4.3 THEME 3...... 12 4.4 THEME 4...... 12 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 WHY DO WE NEED A PLAN?

1.2 Taking a partnership apporach A PARTNERSHIP APPROC Wear Catchment Partnership The ……. Partnership were established in October 2011, with support from a number of organisations. The Partnership will develop over time and comprise a broad membership of organisations and individuals representing a range of interests throughout the Adur and Ouse catchment, including the coast. The ……DG is a core group that provide direction and co-ordination for work in the Adur and Ouse catchment.

Aims of the Lower Wear Partnership

1.3 HOW DOES THIS FIT INTO WHAT IS ALREADY BEING DONE? Since our partnership was formed, we have identified many relevant issues, initiatives and ideas, and have started to prioritise these and take them forward through working groups on:

1.4 OUR VISION

We recognise we will only achieve our vision by working in partnership with local communities, groups, businesses, organisations, authorities and individuals. By working together we can achieve more cost‐ effective improvements for the Welland, encourage others to do the same and help people to understand, enjoy and engage with their local environment. We need your help to:

1.5 A PLAN TO DO THIS The Lower Wear covers area we have 15 rivers water bodies, all of which need to be improved in terms of their water quality and biology. The amount of groundwater which is available for abstraction of all types (e.g. farming, drinking water etc) is adequate for current and planned needs but its quality needs to be improved.

Many groups and organisations are working hard towards achieving better water quality, improved physical habitats and a better water environment and that work will continue. The Lower Wear pilot is focussing on where there is potential for organisations to work more closely together, because working alone is not enough to achieve the outcomes needed. Sub-groups It was agreed to establish sub groups will understand the complex issues within the Adur and Ouse catchment by drawing on a wide range of expertise. This understanding will stem from robust evidence gathered from the wider Adur & Ouse Partnership. The evidence will be used to underpin all action in the Adur and Ouse catchment and form the basis of the Adur & Ouse Catchment Plan. Role and make-up of the task & finish groups The role and make-up of the task & finish groups was previously agreed in the stakeholder workshop….……

Theme or issue based task and finish groups will be set up by the …

WHAT CHARACTERISES OUR RIVERS? 2 WHAT WE WANT TO SEE HAPPEN?

VISION – WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT OF DELIVERING THE PLAN THEME – WHAT DO WE WANT TO WORK ON TOGETHER AND HAVE A COMMON INTEREST IN AIMS – wh

THEME M

AIMS WHAT SPECIFICALLY DO WE WANT TO DO?

TARGETS EVIDENCE BASE (WHERE WE ARE NOW AND WHERE DO WANT TO BE?)

ACTION WHAT IS GOING TO BE DONE, BY WHOME, BY WHEN AND WHERE?

The Habitats Group will draw‐up a work programme to prioritise effort, schemes and geographical… THEME 1: INFLUENCING AND AWARENESS A clean and healthy water environment is vital for everyone's quality of life. People who are socially and economically disadvantaged often live in the worst environments. These problems can affect people's health and well being and can add to the burden of social and economic deprivation. Tackling environmental inequalities and ensuring that all people have access to a good quality environment in the future is critical to sustainable development.

People don’t connect the impact their actions, either in their homes or places of work, may have on their local water environment (e.g. discharging harmful detergents into surface water drains). There is a need to improve understanding and ownership of water quality problems and their solutions within the Lower Wear catchment.

Our aims and what we want to see happen:

Theme INFLUENCING AND AWARENESS Aim 1 Encourage individuals to access and enjoy the river wear valley Aim 2 Understand what people value and want to see improved about their rivers Aim 3 Support, recognise, engage and coordinate existing volunteers and increase opportunities for volunteering Aim 4 Engage with local, regional and national organisations using the river Wear to tackle pollution and maximise opportunities to work in partnership Aim 5 Educate people about the impact of their actions on water quality

Targets include:  By XX mapped relevant current projects and issues in the catchment  By XXX work with XXX schools on water quality projects  promote healthy water environment to encourage people to access and use it  Develop a clear communications strategy by XXXXX for the catchment plan  By 2012 a baseline of awareness and understanding of community aspirations, in terms of the water environment, is developed  By 2015 local residents and community at large and businesses are taking action to change their own behaviour (e.g. reporting incidents, reducing use of harmful chemicals, conserving water, volunteering)  By X date an evidence base exists of practical actions that householders and businesses have undertaken to improve water quality and quality of riparian environment.  By … use results of public survey to develop a ‘flagship project’ to connect all water bodies together within the pilot area – e.g. Wear Way  By 2027 more people who live and work within the catchment area of a river in the pilot area have access [define] to a healthy [check with Natural England definition] local water environment (e.g. walking, angling, rowing).  By December 2012 groups that organise voluntary activity are aware of what others are doing within the Wear pilot area.  By December 2015 expand the volunteer network in the Wear catchment  By 2015 ‘X’ number of volunteers are involved in monitoring and recording water quality using an agreed methodology.  By XXXX creation of a web based forum to collate and display voluntary activity, WFD projects, incidents and investigations for steering group members to access

How will we plan to do this…….(action table….) 2.1 THEME 2: WATER QUALITY All of the 15 areas which make up the Lower Wear pilot are currently failing to achieve water quality standards set by the European Union, but we do not know what is causing a lot of the failure. The Environment Agency is undertaking ‘investigations’ to better understand what the problem is and where it is happening. These investigations will vary from gathering the information we already have to bespoke monitoring and field work and we expect them to be completed by December 2012. The results of these investigations will enable effective targeting of future actions.

In particular, 90% of all water bodies in the pilot area fail to meet both phosphate and ammonia standards and there is a variety of possible causes for this.

To speed up the process of investigation, and create a fuller picture, the Agency would like to work with other organisations to share information and evidence of water quality failures.

Diffuse pollution is categorised by the Environment Agency as being from ‘non- regulated’ sources or discharges. That means that the Agency has not issued a permit allowing the discharge.

The pollution sources can be both rural and urban and may include misconnections (e.g. faulty pipe), run off from roads, soil and sediment coming from land and sewage discharges.

This can lead to a reduction in the number of aquatic species that can tolerate the river conditions, serious pollution incidents and visually unsightly discharges. In particular high nutrient levels (predominantly phosphates) within the rivers can lead to more frequent algal blooms, potentially depleting the rivers of oxygen and damaging aquatic organisms. As well as carrying phosphates, sediment deposition can be directly harmful to the reproduction of certain fish species.

The Environment Agency believes that, in the pilot area, diffuse pollution from a variety of sources is contributing to poor water quality and impacting fish stocks. Work is already underway with local wildlife trusts to tackle diffuse pollution in urban areas through the Living Waterways project (e.g. at Lanchester).

Theme WATER QUALITY Aim 1 Work with others to gain a clear understanding of how to improve water quality in each of the water bodies Aim 2 Priority actions identified to improve water quality in each of the water bodies 2.2 THEME 3: BIODIVERSITY Diverse and sustainable fish stocks are indicative of a healthy aquatic ecosystem and can provide significant recreational and economic services to the catchment. 60% of all water bodies in the pilot area fail to meet required standards for fish.

Poor water quality and modification of most of the major tributaries of the Wear, including installation of in-stream structures, have led to the loss of habitat diversity and the creation of barriers to upstream and downstream fish migration. There is a fish pass programme for the main River Wear and, although the main issues have been identified on the major tributaries, a co-ordinated action and management plan is not yet in place. Some organisations are already doing work to improve water quality and physical habitat, such as on the Cong Burn & Lumley Park Burn.

Salmon & sea trout stocks are continuing to recover in the main River Wear as water quality improves and salmon stocks currently meet their ‘conservation targets’. However, there are still issues with migration which prevent these and other species from extending their natural range (e.g. weirs at Durham City centre & Chester-Le- Street).

Theme BIODIVERSITY Aim 1 Improve the range and quantity of fish and eel stocks in the River Wear and its tributaries Aim 2 More, bigger and better wildlife habitats present in the catchment leading to improved water quality and an increased diversity of native species 2.3 THEME 4: PLANNING AND FLOOD RESILIANCE There is strong evidence that planting woodland in appropriate locations, and also wider targeted tree planting, can benefit the water environment in a number of ways: reduce diffuse pollution by trapping and retaining nutrients and sediment in runoff, reduce the impacts of downstream flooding and reduce soil erosion.

Durham County Council and Sunderland City Council have produced Green Infrastructure Strategies and these include the potential creation of new ‘green spaces’.

Theme PLANNING AND FLOOD RESILIANCE Aim 1 Identify opportunities where land management and land use change has a beneficial effect on the water environment Aim 2 Incorporation of green infrastructure and wildlife corridors into Urban Areas to better manage water flow through the catchment 3 ACTION PLAN

WHO, WHEN ,WHAT, COSTS, POTENTIAL FUNDING STREAMS, HOW

3.1 THEME 1 3.2 THEME 2 3.3 THEME 3 3.4 THEME 4

4 What does the future hold?