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So whose responsibility is it to ensure our drinking water is safe?

3/3/2015

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Following on from the rather shocking video posted here on the 18th of February (it really is well worth watching if you haven't already seen it, just scroll down the Blog to find it) it lead us to thinking just who IS responsible for protecting our drinking water. It seems it is a mixture of Scottish Water, SEPA and the Scottish Government.

This from SEPA's website:



SEPA regulates activities which impact on the water environment.


Pollution control

What is pollution control?

The Water Environment and Water Services Act (WEWS) requires any activity likely to cause pollution to be authorised. SEPA currently uses this act to control discharges to the environment.

Point source discharge means a release of effluent or other matter to the water environment or land, via a fixed installation, pipe, outlet or otherwise. This includes:

  • sewage and trade effluent;
  • surface water discharges from urban areas;
  • abandoned mine discharges.
Typically, discharges will be made directly to water. However, the regime also includes disposals to land, such as waste sheep dip and pesticides, which cause groundwater pollution.

Diffuse pollution is the release of potential pollutants from a range of activities that individually may have no effect on the water environment, but at the scale of a catchment can have a significant impact. Diffuse pollution arises from land use and management and includes livestock grazing, cultivation of land, run-off from urban areas and forestry activities.



Just how aware are SEPA of the risk to our drinking water from trihalomethanes? Who is checking up on this? Scottish Water? 
Don't know about you but we would certainly like the issue of drinking water safety fully out in the open and examined beyond any reasonable doubt.

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