When SEPA do review an abstraction licence, the process,
we have been told, will be a matter for
SEPA as official
regulators. However, contentious proposals
will be advertised after SEPA has formulated its own opinion and only then will wider third party views
will
be sought. Ultimately the final decision in
controversial cases will rest with the Scottish
Government. The Scottish
Government will also ultimately sign off each
River Basin Management Plan. It is not clear to what extent
the Scottish Government may be involved in directing
SEPA’s review process, but this presumably may occur.
However, it seems quite clear that the Directive intended the full participation of society when considering improvement measures. The European Commission's website states that:
" Caring for Europe 's waters will require more involvement of citizens, interested parties, non-governmental organisations (NGOs). To that end the Water Framework Directive will require information and consultation when river basin management plans are established: the river basin management plan must be issued in draft, and the background documentation on which the decisions are based must be made accessible.....Too often in the past implementation has been left unexamined until it is too late - until Member States are already woefully behind schedule and out of compliance."
It was initially hoped that muchwould be delivered
in the first, the 2009, Scottish River Basin Management Plan. However, in practice, the proposals, especially with respect to water abstraction, are much less advanced than hoped. SEPA have a significant amount of work to do to develop proposals for the whole of Scotland and this may not be done until the second or even later plans. The European Commission's quote "woefully behind schedule and out of compliance" does unfortunately spring to mind!
Given that SEPA have were not in a strong position to drive the initiative during the preparation of the first Scotland RBMP the initiative to date has lain with the hydro operators.......
|
|
....upstream
downstream....
The remedies to hydropower abstractions are often immediately apparent. All the flow is being taken? Then open the sluice!
|
