The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales have published the Abstraction Licensing Strategy for the river Wye catchment setting out the licensing principles, information on water availability for further abstraction and how the organisations will manage existing abstraction licences in the catchment.
The Wye Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy area is a cross border catchment spanning both England and Wales. Public water supply and agriculture are the two dominant users of water within the Wye river catchment – the catchment also contains designated sites that carry a high level of environmental importance.
The strategy provides information about where water is available for further abstraction, and an indication of how reliable a new abstraction licence may be. It also outlines where the regulators may need to reduce current rates of abstraction and their approach on time limiting licences.
The strategy is highlighting the fact that abstraction of water will not be available for a significant proportion of the year and that in order to ensure a reliable source of water for needs throughout the year, users may need to consider additional provisions such as water storage.
The strategy explains that each application is determined on its own merits and that while some water is available for further abstraction, this does not guarantee that all applications will be successful.
The strategy also draws attention to the fact that since 2001, in recognition of changing pressures on water resources, all new licences and variations (other than downward variations or minor variations having no environmental impact) have had a time limit imposed.
All time limited licences within a CAMS area have a common end date (CED) so they can be reviewed at the same time. When a licence application is made within six years of the CED, the regulators will generally apply the next CED to any renewed licence granted. This is to avoid issuing shorter and shorter duration licences as the CED approaches - the current CED for the Wye CAMS is 31st March 2027. Approximately 14% of abstraction licences in the Wye CAMS area are time-limited.
Opportunities for licence trading
The strategy also says that both the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales want to make it easier to trade water rights in the Wye catchment. A water rights trade is where a Licence Holder sells all or part of their water right, as defined by their abstraction licence(s), to another Licence Holder on a permanent or temporary basis. The approach taken to licensing water rights trades will depend on the water resource availability where the buyer and seller are located.
Click here to download the River Wye Abstraction Licensing Strategy in full
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