An announcement issued by Mark Lloyd, Chief Govt of the Rivers Belief on 24 January.
It is vitally disappointing that the Prime Minister was so disparaging and dismissive in regards to the want for acoustic fish deterrents on the water intakes for the brand new nuclear energy station being constructed at Hinkley by EDF. These intakes will suck in an Olympic swimming pool’s price of water each 12 seconds, greater than the conventional move of all of the rivers flowing into the Severn Estuary, and and not using a deterrent mechanism will trigger an enormous slaughter of thousands and thousands of tonnes of fish yearly for the subsequent 60 years.
It will trigger the potential extinction of populations of uncommon and endangered species akin to eel, shad and salmon which journey up rivers such because the Bristol Avon, Wye, Usk, Severn, Tawe, Taff and Neath to spawn. Because the Severn Estuary is a crucial fish nursery for the entire area, the strategic and financial impacts for marine fisheries all through the Irish Sea will likely be devastating. That can’t be allowed to occur in an estuary which additionally has the very best ranges of environmental safety in legislation due to its significance for wildlife and its sensitivity to human exercise, to not point out fish shares which have declined dramatically in current a long time.
EDF is attempting to wriggle out of the necessities of its improvement consent order to put in deterrents to scale back the harm of its water intakes. It could be an outrage if the event was allowed to go forward with out fish deterrents, regardless of the Prime Minister’s personal views of their significance.
It must also be stated that EDF has made utterly ham-fisted makes an attempt to interact native communities to seek the advice of about its deliberate mitigation measures, and its proposals look like wholly insufficient. For instance, it has proposed no measures in any respect on the Bristol Avon which is among the rivers closest to the event web site. All the great work being carried out by the Bristol Avon Rivers Belief to nurture recovering fish populations within the river could possibly be undone if EDF – and planning regulators – don’t do the fitting factor.