BBC News - Thames Water accused over dry River Kennet in Wiltshire

The ARK group was shown picking fish out of a small trickle

I should be wary of taking too much of this on trust. ARK have their own agenda here, and many of the "facts" are not quite as they seem. In the first place the Kennet runs dry upstream of Marlborough because it is a winterbourne and we had very little useful rain last winter plus a very dry spring and summer. The nearest major Thames Water abstraction is some 5 miles downstream and therefore does not affect this area. Finally, to my certain knowledge the Kennet has run dry in the area referred to twice since 1976, necessitating fish rescues on both occasions by those qualified to carry out such tasks.

Highlight the plight of chalkstreams by all means because they are very important habitats, but the facts must be accurate. Crying "wolf" doesn't help.

This BBC Panorama programme broadcast on 19th September may be of interest,

BBC iPlayer - Panorama: Drinking Our Rivers Dry?

although the title is somewhat a misnomer, as only a small perentage of the water taken from rivers and their sources is actually used for drinking water.

Aside from that, a reasonable reporting job appears to have been done but even with a documenraty such as this, I'm always wary these days about taking what the Blatantly Biased Corporation says as gospel.

while there is a market for water to be sold then there will be companies taking it and making profit and saying the same old thing its not our fault we only take what we can sell if we buy it they,ll sell it to people.and some bottle it and sell it. they pay 1 a gallon we pay £100 for 300ml. as for the river some one should be given life for letting that happen. but they,ll still get there bonus.

phil

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stop buying bottled water we have,nt got enuff to fish in now so stop it get the water companies to do there job and clean the water every where!!!!

It's a disaster for the River Kennet.

BK

BK,

Back in 1976 the source of the Kennet was Marlborough Sewage works which is to the east of the town. The river recovered from that. Currently the river is still flowing some 4 miles west of the town. Very low, but it is still there. In the 1980's the river was dry 1 mile west of the town and in the 1990's it was 2 miles west of the town.

We have been here before. It is serious, but it is not catastrophic. The river will recover. ARK, Marlborough Town Council and the EA are planning a project to relieve FLOODING in part of the town. The programme forgot to mention that, as did ARK.

The Kennet is groundwater fed, and is reliant upon winter rainfall to replenish the underground aquifers. No rain equals no replenishment.

Incidentally ARK may have committed not one but two offences if they neglected to obtain EA consent to remove fish and to restock them elsewhere. It is to be hoped that they did obtain the necessary consents which would have been given.

The Water Act 2003 enables the EA to close abstractions, WITHOUT COMPENSATION, after July 2012.

Everyone can see that the increase in domestic abstractions along with these massive industry abstractions and licences of right (post 1964) are having an effect on the rivers.

Is there the will and the balls to set a precedent next year and fetch back some of the worst abstractions? Of course not and the EA are preparing the ground in order to ignore their legal requirement to preserve, maintain and develop our fisheries.

It's a very cosy arrangement between the two groups and there are still those in the EA who worked for the WA's. The further up the ladder you climb in the EA, the less sence they make and the more political it becomes; same with Defra.

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http://www.haddonestate.co.uk/rivers/rivers.php
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Charlotte Hitchmough from Action for the River Kennet replies;

Yes, the upper Kennet has recovered from the effects of 1976, 1982 and 1997 when the Kennet experienced extreme low flows – but as you know there is almost much less ranunculus, more algal growth and more silt – you have seen it, and I’d argue this was due to low flows. The flow above Marlborough is very low and declining at the moment.

Yes, the EA are planning a project to relive flooding in Marlborough Town Centre. ARK are hoping to incorporate some habitat restoration and fish easement into that EA project in partnership. Clearly it doesn’t flood during low flows, and low flows are not a problem during floods, so I’m not quite sure what point you are trying to make Bob!

And yes, we did speak to the EA before we did any fish rescue and didn’t breach any rules.

Many thanks!

Charlotte

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http://www.haddonestate.co.uk/rivers/rivers.php
http://www.thepeacockatrowsley.com/fishing.html

The trouble with having been around for a long time is that one tends to have a long memory and keep notes. Back in the 1980's the Kennet at Manton, which is above Marlborough, was run as a fishery. The bottom part was a nice gravel bedded section with a good gradient and plenty of Ranunculus. The middle section was above what had been at one time a hatchpool and moreoever had been dredged. There was virtually no gradient, very slow flows and a muddy sub-strate. In other words not the sort of territory one expects to find Ranunculus, but what did we have? Ranunculus up to the armpits to the extent that it was unfishable from mid-May onwards despite heroic weed-cutting efforts.

Ranunculus is a funny critter. It can flourish wildly for years, disappear for years and suddenly re-appear. As a macrophyte it has been extensively studied by universities up and down the land, but Reading probably lead the field.

Yes, Ranunculus is flow-dependant, but see above and wonder. Light plays a big part in it too, and the stretch referred to above is heavily tree-lined so shading is a factor. Finally we must take into account the enormous changes in land use over the last 30 years. The upper Kennet valley is now one big winter wheat/oilseed rape/spring barley field according to whatever is in fashion this year, whereas 30 years ago the soil was considered too thin to support such crops and it was woolly jumpers as far as the eye could see.

One has to ask oneself how modern farmers get bumper crops to grow now on what was recently considered too poor to get a row of beans. Whatever it is, a fair proportion of it gets into the river by one means or another. It is known that to over-fertilise does not result in bumper crops but to depressed yields and this applies to Ranunculus as well.

It is a complex problem and there is no one simple "Euraka" solution. There are a lot of factors at work, each adding their little quota to the problem. It's going to take more than the Water Framework Directive to unravel it.

I'm glad Charlotte got the necessary consents. I'm sure Marlborough College welcomed the addition of some free browns to the lakes that are part of the problem in the upper Kennet. They could, of course, have been put back into the river lower down.

Whilst I am familiar with most of the principal chalk sreams in England, I have never fished nor visted the Kennet, so I feel unqualified to make any valid comments on this individual case.

However, from the evidence as I saw it presented on BBC's Panorama programme (which concentrated on the poor state of the Kennet near Swindon but also featured the 'improved' Darent in Kent), the direct correlation between low flows and algae profusion at the very least, would seem obvious to me.

Algae thrives in still/sluggish water - factor in excessive nitrate levels and prolonged and above average water temperatures and the problem exacerbates. Whatever claims Thames Water make about not 'over abstracting' the Kennet aquifer, I would agree with Charlotte Hitchmough that taking the volume of water they are, can hardly be beneficial to flow rates!

It seems hardly believable now, that Bernard Venables was lamenting the insiduous destruction of his beloved River Kennet, 47 years ago, following the first major expansion of Swindon. I wonder what his feelings would be were he alive today?