(=£*>- r\ r . 3 AAIOZ. local environment agency plan LOUTH COASTAL CONSULTATION REPORT MARCH 1998 N orth Somercotes 0 Binbrook General Water Quality Total Area: 1040 km2 Biological Quality Chemical Quality Grades 1996 Grades 1996 Population: (Approximate) 90,000 (Residential) Grade length of river (km) Grade length of river (km) 150,000 (Additional at 'very good' 49.6 'very good' 30.1 Peak; Season) 'good' ' 35.3 'good' 48.2 Main Towns (populations): Residential Summer 'fairly good' 50.5 'fairly good' 38.9 (Estimate) Louth 14,248 'fair' 0 'fair' 14.0 Skegness 16,355 38,000 'poor' 9 'poor' 13.2 Mablethorpe & Sutton on Sea 10,253 33,000 'bad' 0 'bad' 0 (including Trusthorpe) Integrated Pollution Control Authorisation Sites: Conoco (UK) Limited, Theddlethorpe Environment Agency Organisation: Conoco Ltd, Tetney Tank Site Anglian Region (Northern Area) Area Office at Lincoln. Sites of Special Scientific Interest: 25 Catchment Office (Lincolnshire) Manby Scheduled Monuments: 77 Water Utility Companies Waste Management Facilities: • Anglian Water Services Limited Licensed Landfill Sites 7 Internal Drainage Boards: Lindsey Marsh Licensed Transfer Stations 7 Consortium Licensed Treatment Plant 0 (Louth, Alford & Skegness) Licensed Scrap yards 5 Length of Statutory Main River: 225.4 km Water Resources Length of Navigable River: 0 km (Potential for 21.5 km - Annual rainfall 653 mm Louth Navigation) Total licensed abstraction Groundwater 26188 TCMA Length of Course Fishery: 108.1 km Surface water 42243 TCMA Length of Trout Fishery: 83.1 km Length of Embanked Fluvial River: 113.8 km Length of Embanked Tidal River: 4.6 km Length of Sea Defence: 62.0 km Area of land below highest astronomical tide 376.0 km2 Flood Storage Reservoirs: 3 Environment Agency Copyright Waiver This Report is intended to be used widely and may be quoted, copied or reproduced in any way, provided that the extracts are not quoted out of context and that due acknowledgement is given to the Environment Agency. Note: This is not a legally or scientifically binding document. RIVER HUMBER key details * Waithe Beck N Not Soml^rcotes Binbrook South Dyke Long Louth Eai Mablethorpe Great Eau ' Woldqj# Draw Alford lapel St7?Leonards. Willoughby High Drain Spilsby Main River Coastline Skegnes! Plan boundary 'A' Roads Wainfleel All Saints This document forms the basis for consultation between the your views Environment Agency and all those with interests in the Plan area. The Environment Agency would welcome your views on the future management of this area: • Have all the important environmental issues been identified? • Have all the options and solutions to issues been identified? Which issues and options do you support or oppose? • Do you have any other information or ideas you would like to express? All comments received will be treated as public information unless you explicitly state otherwise in your response. Following the consultation period all comments received will be considered in preparing the next phase, the Action Plan. The consultation report will not be rewritten as part of the Action Plan process. We intend that the Plan should influence the policies and actions of developers, planning authorities and other organisations as well as assisting in the day to day management of the Plan area. Correspondence on the Consultation Report should be sent to: John Leach LEAPS Officer Environment Agency Waterside House Waterside North Lincoln LN2 5HA All contributions should be made in writing by 10 July 1998. E n v i r o n m e n t A g e n c y NATIONAL LIBRARY & INFORMATION SERVICE ANGLIAN REGION Kingfisher House, Goldhay Way, Orton Goldhay. Peterborough PE 2 5ZR ENVIRONMENT AGENCY 029804 FOREWORD Local Environment Agency Plans are being developed by the Agency for the whole of England and Wales. Their primary purpose is to enable us to identify and focus upon the problems and issues for those areas of the environment over which we have an influence, and to develop a plan of actions to remedy those problems. This Consultation Document marks the first step in the process by discussing the issues we have identified in our consideration of the Louth Coastal Plan area and a range of options to resolve them. Through the process of developing these Plans and through this consultation mechanism, as an organisation, we benefit from our interaction with partner organisations and the public. By addressing the issues from a wider perspective we hope to cultivate integrated solutions thereby improving our management of them. This consultation process gives you an opportunity to influence our decision making and actions. We ask therefore that you read this document and let us know what you feel about the issues raised, have you any alternative solutions you feel we should consider and arc there issues in the area which we have not addressed? We would also like to use this opportunity to ask the public to comment upon the water quality targets as set out in the body and appendices of this document It is important that long-term objectives reflect the likely uses of the watercourses in the area and a public view on the potential uses for specific watercourses would be valued Your responses should be returned to the address on the front cover no later than 10 .July 1998. I would like to thank the individuals and organisations who have contributed to the development of the Plan to this stage, particularly members of the Lincolnshire Area Environmental Group - our customer consultative committee who advise us on the development of LEAPs. Ron Linficld Northern Area Manager SONGS FROM THE BROOK' I come from haunts of coot and hem, I chatter over stony ways, I wind about, and in and out, I make a sudden sally In little sharps and trebles, With here a blossom sailing, And sparkle out among the feni, I bubble into eddying bays, And here and there a lusty trout, To bicker down a valley I babble on the pebbles. And here ivtd there a grayling, By thirty hills I hurry down, With many a curve my banks I fret And here and there a foamy flake Or slijf between the ridges, By many a field and fallow, Upon me, as I travel By twenty thorps, a little town, And many a fairy forelaiul set, With many a silvery waterbrcak And half a hundred bribes. With willow-weed and mallow. Above the golden gravel, Till last by philifs farm I flow I chatter, chatter, as I flow And draw them all along, and flow To join the brimming river, To join the brimming river, To join the brimming river, For men may come and men may go, For men may come and men may go, For men m y come and men may go, But I go on forever. But I go on forever. But I go on forever...... Alfred Lord Tennyson. DRAFT VISION The Louth Coastal Area is situated within the County of Lincolnshire and covers an area of 1040 km2. It is a predominantly rural area, home to some 90,000 people - a figure which can be swelled by the influx of holiday makers during the summer season to well over 240,000. Tourism is obviously vital to the wealth of this area, a factor influenced by the quality of its seven E.C. Designated Bathing Waters all of which comply with the Mandatory standards. Drainage in the catchment is provided by a number of medium-sized embanked watercourses which take waters from the Lincolnshire Wolds across the coastal plain before discharge to the sea. In the low lying coastal strip drainage is provided by the local Internal Drainage Boards. Of significant importance to this catchment are the extensive sea defences along the coastline, which serve to protect large areas of land from tidal inundation. These are made even more significant by the long term predictions for rising sea levels. The pressures of additional development in the Plan area, leading to increased demands for water, will present a major challenge as it is acknowledged that available water resources in the catchment are inadequate to meet the demands placed upon it. There is particular concern that abstraction from the chalk aquifer is contributing to depleted spring flows which have an effect on channel morphology and the habitat of in-river flora and fauna. Further pressures are exerted by the increasing production of waste which must be disposed of safely and sustainably whether to land, air or water. A challenge in the Plan area is to combat the issue of landfill gas from Kenwick Landfill Site and this will be achieved by working together with the site operators in order to provide and encourage sustainable solutions. The Agency continues to liaise with Anglian Water Services Ltd with respect to upgrading the sewerage system for Louth. Improvement works to the town’s sewers have commenced with completion due in mid 1998. The scheme will reduce the volume and frequency of sewer discharges and should improve the quality of the River Lud/Louth Canal. Within the next 10-15 years we aim to achieve, in partnerships with others, the following actions that are particularly relevant to the Louth Coastal Plan area: To maintain and improve water quality, particularly improving the quality of the River Lud/Louth Canal; To maintain the generally high standard of flood defences and, where necessary, improve levels of protection for people and property in low lying areas. Using initiatives, such as the Biodiversity Action Plans, realise opportunities to improve the wildlife conservation value of the Plan area. To make progress towards a better understanding of the links between lack of flow in spring fed watercourses and its impact on the flora and fauna.