Yorkshire Water has applied for more drought permits due to the threat of a serious water shortage in the Yorkshire area caused by an exceptional shortage of rain.
The water company is applying to the Environment Agency for two drought permits in the River Derwent catchment under section 79A of the Water Resources Act 1991. Earlier this month the utility also applied for six other drought permits.
The permits are intended to apply until 31 March 2019 and propose a temporary increase in the annual abstraction limit at Loftsome Bridge and correspondingly reduce the annual abstraction limit at Elvington.
Yorkshire Water is authorised to abstract water from the River Derwent at Loftsome Bridge – the abstraction at Loftsome Bridge is limited to 114,000 cubic metres per day and 30,400,000 cubic metres per year.
The utility is separately authorised to abstract water from the River Derwent at Elvington which is limited to 205,000 cubic metres per day and 75,000,000 cubic metres per year.
The abstractions at Loftsome Bridge and Elvington are aggregated and limit daily abstraction to 305,000 cubic metres per day and 98,841,000 cubic metres per year.
The drought permit applications for the River Derwent are to increase the annual abstraction limit at Loftsome Bridge by 2,300,000 cubic metres per year, and to correspondingly decrease the annual abstraction limit at Elvington by 2,300000 cubic metres per year. The new annual abstraction volumes are 32 700 000 cubic metres and 72,700,000 cubic metres respectively. The daily limits at each site and the aggregate volumes will not change.
Yorkshire Water said the drought permits will allow it to continue to abstract from the River Derwent at Loftsome Bridge until 31 March 2019. This will mean that it can continue to supply customers using river water, helping reservoir stocks to recharge over the winter period, which will help maintain supply to customers in the Yorkshire area.
An assessment of the potential environmental impacts of implementing the drought permits has been carried out in consultation with the Environment Agency and Natural England.
Any objections should be made in writing to the Environment Agency immediately and in any event by 5pm on 3rd January.
Objections may be made at:
Water Resources Permitting Support Centre, Environment Agency, Quadrant 2,
99 Parkway Avenue, Parkway Business Park, Sheffield, S9 4WF or
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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