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Watery walks lead the way to better water quality for Angus

23 March 2010

Every journey starts with a few steps and the months of April and May will see environmental experts walking the land around key rivers and burns in Angus.

Staff from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) will be walking the South Esk and its tributaries, collecting information and assessing the impacts of rural diffuse pollution. The work is an essential part of ensuring that Scotland's water quality continues to improve and meets quality improvement targets set for 2015.

The River South Esk is one of 14 Scottish water catchments that have been prioritised for work between now and 2015. Diffuse pollution, often driven by rainfall, results in water contaminated with soil, nutrients, bacteria and chemicals running off land into the local water environment. This is a major contributor to poor water quality, which in turn affects the ecology of the river. 

The South Esk is home to internationally important populations of Atlantic salmon and freshwater pearl mussels, both of which can be impacted by silt and nutrient inputs to the river. Concerns over the productivity of the freshwater pearl mussel in particular prompted Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to run diffuse pollution awareness raising events for land managers in four South Esk sub-catchments.

SEPA has now appointed Priority Catchment Officers to coordinate work in each area. Once the walks have been completed, a series of workshops and information events will be arranged to explain the findings to local landowners and partner organisations. These events will act as a follow up to the previous SNH funded meetings. SEPA will then start work with landowners, as well as with Scottish Government, SNH, NFUS and other partner organisations, to identify what actions are needed to improve water quality.

Stuart McGowan, Unit Manager for SEPA's Dundee and Angus team, said:

"The South Esk is an internationally important river system as evidenced by it's designation as a Special Area of Conservation, while Montrose Basin is recognised as being internationally important for wildfowl and waders. SEPA is now beginning work to tackle rural diffuse pollution within the South Esk catchment. The work cannot be completed without help from the community and we need the support of local land managers to deal with the on the ground issues. This isn't about SEPA dictating what needs to be done to sort out the problem, it's about working together with the people that live and work in the area, and we are looking for their support in achieving environmental improvements to water quality. SEPA is already engaged in partnership work within this catchment via River Basin Management Planning and the South Esk Catchment Management Plan.

"We hope that any land managers meeting our staff walking the catchments during April and May will take the opportunity to tell us about any water issues that concern them. SEPA will be taking steps to ensure that we communicate our priority catchment work with all those involved to help us stop rural diffuse pollution being an issue in Angus."

Barbara Bremner, policy and advice officer with SNH, said:

"We welcome the continuation of work to improve water quality in the catchment as this can only bring further benefits to the species and habitats in the area which are of such international importance."

Jonathan Hall, Head of Rural Policy for NFUS, said:

"Managing water quality is as much about land management as everything else put together, with 5.6 million hectares of Scottish land under agricultural management.  This means that Scotland's farmers carry a huge responsibility to ensure that the water environment is of the highest quality in every aspect and that is a challenge that they continue to rise to.

"Clear and concise guidance on measures that can be taken to minimise diffuse water pollution and improve input efficiency will benefit both the water environment and farm business performance. Tackling the key issues will need a new approach, and this kind of relationship is currently being fostered by SEPA and NFU Scotland working together."

Further information on rural diffuse priority catchments is available at www.sepa.org.uk/dpprioritycatchments

Ends

Notes to editors

• SEPA has identified over 100 Scottish catchments that are subject to a wide range of diffuse pollution impacts.  The catchments have been prioritised as focus for work between now and 2015, with other catchments to be dealt with in later years. The catchments have been prioritised using SEPA's assessment of diffuse pollution.
  
• The work will also include mitigation of other water quality impacts, caused by morphological change, abstractions, flooding and alien species, where these are also causing water body downgrades. Other diffuse pressures include urban run-off, sewage cross connections, septic tanks, mining and forestry.
  
• Diffuse pollution is the most significant pollution pressure causing water bodies to fail objectives under the Water Framework Directive (FWD).
  
• Public health is a key factor of bathing waters legislation and the work on the coastal burns in the water catchments will contribute to improved bathing water quality in the future.