The Environment Agency
Hampshire & Isle of Wight Area Office
Colvedene
Wessex Business Park
Wessex Way
Colden Common
Winchester
Hampshire, SO21 1WP

30 March 2007

Dear Sirs,

Application No: G/1033
DISCHARGE OF TREATED SEWAGE EFFLUENT INTO THE RIVER ITCHEN AT TICHBORNE.

Following a recent Town meeting we write to express our objection to the subject application, which also represents the opinions of the majority of residents of Alresford.

The opinions expressed in this letter are based upon the input from a qualified independent consultation that for many years advised the National Rivers Authority.

THE PROPOSAL

The proposal by Newater plc is to pump sewage effluent from Portswood Sewage Treatment Works into the River Itchen between Tichborne and Otterbourne in order that, if it is agreed by the Environment Agency, the licence can be sold to Southern Water plc to abstract more water from the River Itchen at Otterbourne for public water supply.

THE EFFLUENT

The proposed effluent will be from Portswood Sewage Works, which is situated some 20 miles distant in the Portswood area of Southampton. This area of Southampton is one of the most industrial areas and therefore the effluent COULD contain traces of all the industrial effluents which discharge into the sewerage system prior to treatment. The effluent from Portswood Sewage Treatment Works currently discharges into the River Itchen Estuary where it receives a huge dilution and causes little or no pollution problems.

THE VOLUME

The volume of the proposed discharge is 27.000 cubic metres per day, which in layman’s terms is approximately 6 million gallons per day. At the possible discharge point at Tichborne Mill during periods of low flow of the River Itchen there could be LITTLE OR NO DILUTION of the effluent by clean River Itchen water. (The Environment Agency’s own information suggests that as little as 1 to 1 dilution is possible) This means that from Tichborne Village until there is extra water flow from the cress beds or David Reilly's Trout Farm during periods of low flow (May to October) the River Itchen COULD be very little else but sewage effluent.

THE PUMPING SYSTEM

As has already been mentioned the sewage effluent would be pumped from Portswood to Cheriton, approximately 20 miles via several pumping stations situated along the route. This would entail many wayleaves to be negotiated and the possibility of pumping station failures and emergency overflows into local streams and ditches should emergencies arise. The diameter of the pipe to pump this large volume of effluent would be large and would need planning permissions from the many local authorities it passes through and also negotiations with the large number of landowners.

OPINION

This scheme is totally impractical and has so many possibilities of polluting the superb upper Itchen streams of Hampshire that it is inevitable that there will be problems at some point in the future causing serious environmental damage. We are, therefore, requesting that the Environment Agency CALL IN the application in order to have a PUBL1C INQUIRY into the whole scheme. We are acutely aware that drinking water is becoming harder to obtain and maybe that a smaller scheme to recharge the chalk aquifer with sewage effluent, similar to the Alresford Sewage Treatment Works process, could be considered a possibility. The Newater Scheme appears to us to be an over-enthusiastic scheme with the possibilities of major pollution of one of the country's best chalk streams.

Yours faithfully

New Alresford Town Council