Policy paper

Severn Draft River Basin Management Plan summary and cross border catchments (England and Wales)

Published 22 October 2021

Applies to England and Wales

1. Purpose of this document

This document provides an overview of the draft plan for the Severn River Basin District. It focuses on how the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales coordinate the work on catchments that are close to or are part of the border between England and Wales.

This document also provides links to other information and documents which together form the draft Severn River Basin Management Plan. These are:

• detailed information on English and Welsh water bodies
• country specific documents that detail how waters are managed in England and Wales
• other supporting information such as updates on the Strategic Environment Assessment and Habitats Regulation Assessment

2. How the consultation works

The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales are seeking your views on the proposed updated environmental objectives and summary programmes of measures to protect and improve the water environment in the Severn River Basin District. Your responses will help ensure that the actions and approaches adopted in the updated plan support a green economy, wildlife and habitats, and contribute to everyone’s health and wellbeing.

There is an online consultation where you can leave your responses. Alternatively, if you are unable to access the online tool you can respond by emailing RBMPconsultation@environment-agency.gov.uk

3. Severn River Basin Management Plan

The Severn River Basin Management Plan was first published in 2009, and then updated in February 2016. This is the consultation for the next update to the plan.

The purpose of this plan is to protect and improve the water environment for the wider benefit of people and wildlife in the Severn River Basin District.

3.1 Severn River Basin District

The Severn River Basin District, which covers over 21,000km², lies both in England and Wales. It extends from the Welsh uplands, through the rolling hills of the Midlands and south to the Severn Estuary.

Over 5 million people live in the river basin district. Although predominantly rural, it includes urban areas such as Bristol, Coventry, Cardiff, the South Wales Valleys and parts of the West Midlands conurbation.

The Severn River Basin District has a particularly rich diversity of wildlife and habitats, supporting many species of global and national importance. For example, the Severn Estuary and its surrounding area are protected for their bird populations, habitats and migratory fish species such as Atlantic salmon, shad, and lamprey.

To view a map showing the boundary of the Severn River Basin District visit the catchment data explorer.

4. Working together in the Severn River Basin District

Responsibility for coordinating the planning of the future of waters in England lies with the Environment Agency. For waters in Wales it lies with Natural Resources Wales. However, The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales work jointly in the Severn River Basin District.

Some waters in the river basin district form the boundary between Wales and England, or cross from Wales into England or England into Wales. Joint working on the cross border waters is therefore essential to ensure the water environment is protected and improved. The aim is to achieve this through collaborative working with the land managers and local groups.

Working together with partners increases the understanding of the priorities for action and helps to ensure that the appropriate measures are carried out.

In 2013, Defra launched the catchment based approach to help improve the quality of the water environment in England. This approach embeds collaborative working at the catchment scale, bringing a range of partners together to support integrated catchment management. This results in multiple benefits including improvements to water quality, enhanced biodiversity and reduced flood risk.

In Wales the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 outlines the policy framework to enable the environment to be managed in a more proactive, sustainable and joined up way. It includes a duty for Natural Resources Wales to produce area statements to help implement the priorities set out in the Welsh Government’s Natural Resources Policy. There are seven areas or ‘places’ in Wales, including the marine environment. Each area has a live area statement document summarising the challenges and opportunities relevant to that area, which were first published in April 2020. The delivery of area statements requires a new way of working and relies on successful collaboration with partners and stakeholders. The Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 made it a requirement for all public bodies to work towards the seven wellbeing goals and think about how their decisions will affect people living in Wales now and in the future.

There are 3 opportunity catchments in the Welsh part of the Severn River Basin District where Natural Resources Wales aim to target resources. These are: Taff and Ely; Central Monmouthshire; and Ithon. The Marine Area Statement also highlights actions to improve the quality of estuarine and coastal waters.

4.1 Cross border partnership working

Catchment partnerships are now active in the Severn Uplands, Teme, and Wye helping to coordinate work across the England and Wales border. The aim of the catchment approach is to work collectively for the benefit of the whole catchment, rather than a piecemeal approach.

For example, the Wye catchment partnership is hosted by the Wye and Usk Foundation, with Natural Resources Wales and the Environment Agency working closely with the group. The partnership has a diverse membership with representatives from rivers trusts, wildlife trusts, government organisations, private forestry, farming unions, water companies, conservation trusts, and local companies, as well as interested individuals. More information can be found at the catchment based approach and the Wye and Usk Foundation websites.

The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales will continue to develop new projects, working collaboratively with a wide range of partner and stakeholder groups at both a local and catchment scale. Projects will be targeted in priority areas delivering a range of benefits and outcomes for people and wildlife. By taking an integrated catchment approach and through sustainable land management, the aim is to deliver reduced flood risk to local communities, improve water quality, enhance and create new habitat and protect water resources. Through the development of natural flood management pilot projects and local landowner engagement a variety of land management interventions to improve soil health have been delivered, thereby attenuating and storing more water in soils and upstream catchments. This has also reduced the risk of surface water run-off and associated diffuse pollution from agricultural sources that is currently driving many of the water quality failures, particularly phosphate.

4.2 River Severn Partnership

With a changing climate, where weather extremes are becoming more pronounced and frequent, partners spanning Mid Wales, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire came together forming the River Severn Partnership in September 2019.

This partnership will look to help people, businesses and environment to prepare for and be resilient to climate change impacts. This is across the rivers Severn, Teme, Warwickshire Avon and Wye. Proposals include options for flood risk management, improving water quality, environmental enhancement and developing an integrated approach to water resource storage and management.

4.3 Severn Estuary Partnership

The Severn Estuary Partnership works with the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales (along with local authorities, environmental groups, water companies, industry, and the private sector) to develop a sustainable and integrated approach for the Severn Estuary. A new strategy was published in 2017 to provide a strategic policy framework for the Severn Estuary, inform and support decision making, and to facilitate the Marine and Coastal Access Act (2009) related to cross border integration and an ecosystem based approach to management.

5. Current state of the water environment in the Severn River Basin District

Monitoring and assessment of the water environment increases understanding of the impact of pollution and other pressures. Making this information available on data sharing systems such as catchment data explorer and Water Watch Wales enables everyone to access it and determine how their individual actions can contribute towards safeguarding the water environment.

Summaries for the whole Severn River Basin District are as follows.

Number of water bodies in the Severn River Basin District

Number of water bodies	Natural	Artificial	Heavily modified	Total
River, canals and surface water transfers	560	47	74	681
Lake	14	7	47	68
Coastal	0	0	0	0
Estuarine	1	0	5	6
Groundwater	42	-	-	42
Total	617	54	126	797

Ecological status for surface waters in the Severn River Basin District

Ecological status or potential	Bad	Poor	Moderate	Good	High	Total
Number of water bodies	45	114	456	140	0	755

Chemical status for surface waters in the Severn River Basin District

Chemical status	Fail	Good	Total
Number of water bodies	741	14	755

Differences between chemical status classification results can be seen in cross border catchments for ubiquitous persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals (uPBTs) and in particular polybrominated diphenyl ethers and mercury. These differences are due to differences in the evidence that is available. The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales work closely together on chemicals classification. Each organisation has developed an approach that makes best use of the available evidence. Whilst the approaches to classification may differ, the measures applied to reduce uPBTs in the water environment are broadly comparable across England and Wales and are driven from national legislation. Monitoring the reduction of these chemicals in the environment will continue to ensure that measures are appropriate.

Quantitative status for groundwater in the Severn River Basin District

Quantitative status	Poor	Good	Total
Number of water bodies	9	33	42

Chemical status for groundwater in the Severn River Basin District

Chemical status	Poor	Good	Total
Number of water bodies	15	27	42

Drinking water protected areas current status in the Severn River Basin District

Water body type	Number of drinking water protected areas	Number ‘at risk’
Surface water	81	33
Ground water	42	18

Nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ) protected areas extent in the Severn River Basin District

Reason for designation	Number of NVZs	Land area (ha) covered by NVZ type	Percentage of river basin district covered by NVZ type
High nitrates in surface waters	66	688,722	49
Eutrophication in lakes or reservoirs	11	21,781	2
High nitrates in groundwater	22	318,317	23

Nitrate vulnerable zones no longer exist in Wales. The Nitrate Pollution Prevention (Wales) Regulations (2013) have been revoked and replaced by the Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2021.

Nutrient sensitive area protected areas in the Severn River Basin District

Sensitive area protected areas	Number of sensitive areas	Length (km) or area (km2) designated
Eutrophication in rivers	22	959.2 km
Eutrophication in canals	2	3.10 km²
Eutrophication in lakes or reservoirs	2	30.00 km²
High nitrate in surface fresh water	2	63.00 km²

Number of Shellfish and Bathing Waters protected areas in the Severn River Basin District

There are:

• no shellfish waters
• 4 bathing waters

Number of European site protected areas in the Severn River Basin District

There are:

• 25 water dependent Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas
• 2 Ramsar sites

5.1 Changes since the last update to the Severn River Basin Management Plan

The methodology and evidence used for monitoring and managing the water environment is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect the best available approach. Since the last update of the Severn River Basin Management Plan in 2016 some changes have been made, including:

• changes to classification tools based on advice from the UK Technical Advisory Group and other technical experts. These include revised environmental standards for nitrogen in lakes and pH (Wales only) and the list of invasive non-native species identified as high risk

• minor amendments to the water body network. The proposed changes to the water body network in England can be found in the ‘River basin planning progress report’ and for Wales the River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) Overview Annex Wales

6. Challenges

Many rivers, streams, lakes, estuaries and coasts are degraded and damaged by development, industry, agriculture, and modifications to provide flood protection.

The challenge of reducing flood risk is discussed in the separate consultation on flood risk management plans which will run from October 2021 to January 2022. However, work to improve the environment and reduce flood risk needs to be coordinated to deliver maximum benefits for both outcomes.

6.1 Challenges in the Severn River Basin District

In 2019, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales consulted on the most important challenges to the current and potential future uses and benefits of the water environment, including protected areas, in the Severn River Basin District. Following the review of consultation responses, the challenges to be addressed by this river basin management plan were confirmed and are briefly described in alphabetical order below.

Further information on the challenges can be found in the English ‘River basin planning process overview’ document and Welsh part of the Severn RBMP document.

6.1.1 Biodiversity crisis

The UK has already lost 90% of its wetland habitats in the last 100 years, and over 10% of freshwater and wetland species are threatened with extinction.

Urgent action is needed to reduce the pressures these habitats and species are facing and to increase their quantity, quality and connectedness so biodiversity can thrive. Water dependent habitat in the Severn River Basin District, for example saltmarsh in the Severn Estuary, is vital for helping to adapt to an uncertain future, particularly in helping to withstand and adapt to climate change and extreme weather conditions.

6.1.2 Changes to water levels and flows

Without water none of us can survive. But how water gets to people’s taps and the effect that has on the environment is something most of us don’t think about. Water taken from rivers, aquifers and reservoirs in the Severn River Basin District benefits all parts of the economy from farmers to energy producers, and society through drinking water, sports and recreation and fisheries.

There are areas where too much water is already taken. As the climate changes and population grows, demand for water will also grow. Over-abstraction damages rivers, springs, aquifers, lakes and wetlands, reducing the places where wildlife can live. It becomes more difficult for fish to reach the places where they lay their eggs (their spawning grounds) and where they feed.

6.1.3 Chemicals

Chemicals can impact human health and wildlife from direct exposure to the chemicals or from accumulation via the food chain.

Some chemicals in the Severn River Basin District are ubiquitous and are best managed at a national scale. Others are specific to an activity and their management should be focused at a local scale. Many chemicals are banned from production or use but are persistent in the environment for long periods. These continue to be monitored to demonstrate that existing controls are adequate, and concentrations are decreasing.

6.1.4 Climate change

Climate change is and will continue to impact England and Wales through sea level rise and changes to weather patterns, such as, extreme rainfall, heat waves and drought. This will affect how our natural water assets function and reduce the services that those assets provide and the benefits that we receive as a society, such as drinking water, recreation and wellbeing. 

Immediate and ambitious action to reduce the impact of climate change and put in place measures to adapt to it is vital. We need to work collaboratively to build resilience to future warming scenarios. If nothing is done the consequences for people and wildlife will be immense.

6.1.5 Invasive non-native species

A non-native species is an animal or plant introduced, either deliberately or accidentally, into a place where it does not belong. They can ‘hitch hike’ a ride on transported goods or other animals or even travel in the ballast of ships. Not all non-native species are damaging; for instance non-native food crops can have huge benefits. A species only becomes ‘invasive’ if it has negative effects on the environment. Global trade, tourism and transport increase the problem world-wide. The problem is increasing every year.

The cost to society that invasive non-native species pose can be enormous. For example, Japanese knotweed grows in thick dense clusters that increase riverbank erosion and may reduce the capacity of river channels, possibly leading to increased flooding. But the effects are not just economic. Invasive non-native species can also damage wildlife habitat and human health.

6.1.6 Plastics

Many people are more aware than ever that plastic has an impact on seas and wildlife, but it’s not just the plastic pollution that can be seen on beaches. Because of the way plastics (including micro-plastics) are produced, used and disposed of, these plastics can also pollute lakes, rivers and streams, soil and air.

6.1.7 Physical modifications

For thousands of years rivers, estuaries, lakes and the coastline have been physically modified to support farming, industry, transport, including shipping, and by building places to live. Some of those physical changes are still essential. They help to provide protection from flooding, support the supply of drinking water and the production of food. Other changes have helped create iconic landscapes and architecture.

But as rivers have been diverted, covered, and straightened, the environment has been damaged. The legacy of structures and other changes means many of the rivers and waterways do not provide healthy and sustainable habitats for wildlife.

6.1.8 Pollution from agriculture and rural areas

Rivers, streams and groundwater are an essential part of rural life and the rural economy. However, the way land and livestock are managed, including the use fertilisers and pesticides, results in pollution of rivers and groundwater.

Farming and rural land use is ever changing. We need to make soils, air and water healthier than they are now whilst growing enough food for everyone. A transition to a more sustainable agriculture will also contribute to the net zero target and climate change adaptation.

6.1.9 Pollution from towns, cities and transport

Pollution can come from the drainage off roads, transport, industries and housing. Historic pollution from factories and heavy industry has also left a legacy contaminating land, soils and water.

The climate emergency is intensifying the problems densely populated areas create. The impact of pollution from urban areas is particularly acute during heavy rainfall events following periods of prolonged dry weather. In dry weather pollutants build up on hard surfaces such as roads, and in drains. Heavy rainfall flushes all these pollutants into rivers and streams in one go which can damage wildlife.

In Wales, acidification continues to impact rivers and lake ecosystems due to the atmospheric deposition of sulphur and nitrogen compounds on sensitive upland soils. Afforestation with conifers in uplands and changes to drainage also increase the risk and impacts of acidification. The source of atmospheric pollution historically was coal-fired power stations. International controls and a shift to cleaner fuels has resulted in significant emissions reductions. Diffuse emissions from transport, domestic and agricultural sources still have a local impact.

6.1.10 Pollution from water industry wastewater

The water industry plays a vital role in making sure that waste water from homes and businesses is safely treated and returned to the environment. Pollution from waste water has in the past damaged rivers, streams and coastal waters very badly. But the situation has improved a lot in the last 30 years. This is because the water industry have invested their customer’s money in better collection and treatment systems, and improved how they work with local people.

Despite these improvements, water industry activities are still one of the main reasons why waters are not in a good enough state. Work is underway to address these problems but more is needed. The water industry need to further improve their treatment systems and reduce incidents of untreated waste water being discharged to rivers and coastal waters.

Everyone can play a part in helping to reduce the effects of waste water by for example, thinking more carefully about what is poured down the sink and flushed down the toilet.

7. Programmes of measures

The summary programmes of measures have been reviewed to ensure the right measures are being delivered in the right place to achieve the environmental objectives in this plan. To meet the objectives, a combination of measures will need to be delivered across many sectors.

The summary programmes of measures can be found in the English draft river basin management plan summary programmes of measures and the Welsh part of the Severn RBMP document.

7.1 Coordinating actions with other outcomes

Actions to reduce flood risk are discussed in the Flood Risk Management Plans. However, by taking a collaborative place-based approach, measures developed primarily to achieve different outcomes (for instance increased flood resilience) will deliver multiple benefits, including helping to achieve the environmental objectives of this plan.

For example, the Severn Valley Water Management Scheme is looking to adopt a catchment based approach to flood risk in the Severn Catchment with the promotion of nature based solutions and environmental enhancements to compliment other more formal flood risk management interventions.

It is anticipated that the initial focus will be in the Upper Severn catchment within both England and Wales using nature based solutions, land use management change, and a range of interventions to store flood water and reduce flow in the River Severn. Such an approach could alleviate pressure on existing assets, reduce emergency response requirements and provide added resilience in terms of future water resources.

7.2 Measures in the cross border area

Many of the waters that are on or close to the border have common reasons for not achieving their water environment objectives. Working together provides better opportunities to access funding to support innovative projects to protect and improve the water environment.

The following sections highlight areas where the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales are working together with partners to control some of the main challenges in the cross border areas of the Severn River Basin District.

7.2.1 Changes to water levels and flows

Throughout the cross border catchments, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales work together to manage water levels and flows. This includes working on drought groups, the River Severn Drought Order and on abstraction licence consultations. The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, are working together to licence new and previously exempt surface water and groundwater abstractions, ensuring the demand for water is more sustainable for the future.

Water Resources West (WRW) is one of five regional water resources planning groups set up in England. It is a joint partnership between United Utilities, South Staffs Water, Severn Trent Water and Dŵr Cymru with advisory support from the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales. Water Resources West are working to ensure sustainable use of water resources by providing a strategic oversight and co-ordination of water resource matters within the cross border river catchments, along with other catchments within the West of England. They are working with a range of stakeholders to ensure enough water is available to meet demands for people, environment and adapting to climate change.

7.2.2 Invasive non-native species

The Environment Agency, the Wye and Usk Foundation and Natural Resources Wales are working in partnership to eradicate invasive non-native species on the River Wye. To date, they have been very successful but need to continue to remove the invasive plants on a regular and ongoing basis. The work also needs to be extended to other cross border catchments, for example the River Monnow.

The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales are also looking to develop joint protocols that reduce the risk of an accidental transfer of invasive non-native species during work on cross border rivers, for example whilst restocking eels.

7.2.3 Physical modifications

Unlocking the Severn is a project to improve passage for twaite shad up the River Severn and River Teme by removing barriers to fish migration. For the River Severn action will be needed on the Severn Vyrnwy confluence on the border with Wales.

Action is also being carried out on the River Lugg cross border catchment to remove or lower barriers and install fish passes. This work will help migratory fish (such as salmon) and needs to be extended to the River Arrow where there are more than twenty weirs.

7.2.4 Pollution from agriculture and rural areas

The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales are working collaboratively, with a range of stakeholders and partners, to address issues associated with how land and livestock are managed.

For example, the Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) Board sets out strategic direction and delivery objectives to reduce phosphate in the Rivers Wye and Lugg in line with the NMP. This is supported by a Technical Advisory Group (TAG). A number of options and measures are being proposed by the TAG to deliver the necessary phosphate reduction at key sites.

The Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2021 have been introduced in Wales to reduce losses of pollutants from agriculture to the environment by setting rules for certain farming practices. The Regulations also set standards for silage making, storage of silage effluent and for slurry storage systems. They establish good practice requirements for nutrient management into one set of regulations.

7.2.5 Pollution from water industry wastewater

Water quality modelling has been carried out for the next period of water company investment by Severn Trent Water and Dŵr Cymru with input from the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales. Further work is being undertaken to finalise schemes in order to maximise benefits within catchments and further improve discharges from sewage treatment works and combined sewer overflows.

8. Summary of objectives

In the English part of the Severn River Basin District the majority of water bodies have an objective of good ecological status. The actions planned for the period from 2021 are expected to achieve good ecological status by 2027 in 3 of the 432 water bodies that are not currently at good ecological status. For the remaining water bodies there is low confidence of meeting their objective by 2027. More information about these objectives can be found on the catchment data explorer.

Of the 287 water bodies in the Welsh part of the Severn River Basin District, 93 are already at good status. 22 water bodies will improve to good status by 2033 or 2039 as a result of the measures already in place or planned in the next cycle. An additional 147 water bodies have an objective of good status (unlikely) by 2027.

Achieving these objectives would also safeguard the quality of drinking water sources in drinking water protected areas and achieve improvement objectives for bathing waters, and the water bodies on which protected areas for the conservation of internationally important wildlife depend. More information on the objectives for protected areas can be found for England in European sites protected area summary tables and for Wales in the Welsh part of the Severn RBMP document.

9. Progress since the 2016 update

Information on the progress made since the last update to the plan can be accessed in the ‘River basin planning progress report’ for waters in England and the Welsh part of the Severn RBMP document for waters in Wales.