Tim Farron – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2014-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will assess the viability of limiting the extraction of water from Windermere and Ullswater only when flow levels are high to reduce the risk of over-extraction and flood control.

Dan Rogerson

The Environment Agency limits United Utilities to abstracting water from Windermere and Ullswater to periods when there is adequate flow in the downstream rivers. Recent studies of Windermere and Ullswater have concluded that both abstraction licences are sustainable. Current abstraction levels would not have a material impact on flood risk as the total daily abstraction would only equate to approximately 1 percent of the flow during a flood.