Friends of the Earth Birmingham Action Briefing Apr/May 98

Water

Things are starting to move again in the water campaign after my long break at Christmas. I applied to the Environment Agency (EA) for the position on the Upper Trent Area Environment Group left vacant by our previous water campaigner and went to my first meeting in January. The Group is made up from local government representatives, people from business, farming and recreational bodies such as anglers as well as the odd environmentalist like me! It meets four times a year to discuss issues such as the performance of the EA, prosecutions for breach of consent and other such items. There will be more on this in the future when I am a bit more familiar with the Group's workings.

I am also our representative on the Local Agenda 21 water subgroup and this looks like it may bring to fruition some interesting projects. Our second meeting was on the 26th February and we discussed the issues highlighted in the first meeting such as the quality of the water environment in Birmingham, water meters and, in particular, the ones which require a card that have just been declared illegal by the High Court. Again, more on this as it progresses.

Last time I wrote about the water campaign, Dr Bob Breach was about to come and give a presentation on Severn Trent Water's environmental policies. This was well attended and very informative. Some fairly challenging questions were asked and we are likely to be doing some joint campaigning with STW in the near future. The issue will be the Bag It and Bin It campaign which aims to educate people that toilets are not rubbish disposal units and we need to be more careful what we flush down our toilets. On this issue, we have a mature student from UCE, Glyn Selwyn, working with us at present who will be helping that campaign and possibly producing a leaflet on water issues for BFOE.

Lastly but not least, a piece of good news. You may remember that John Davison and I went for a walk along the River Tame in late July and notified the EA about some problems we felt were a concern. We thought that we had smelt raw sewage near to the Star Site in Aston and were assured that there were no sewer overflows in this area. However, the EA did send out some inspectors who found an old sewer outfall hidden in the undergrowth which was discharging. This has been traced back to its source and the discharge stopped, so that's a bit less pollution in the River Tame which needs all the help it can get. The Local Environment Agency Plan (LEAP) for the Tame is due out for consultation soon and I will be commenting on it so anyone who'd like to get involved with that, please get in touch with me via the Warehouse.

Laura Burrows Water Campaigner