Plans for a new gigantic, “environmentally disastrous” reservoir in Abingdon should be halted say Vale of White Horse District Council.
The council has rejected plans for the reservoir over environmental concerns in its published response to the public consultation on futureproofing water supplies in South East England. In addition, Vale raised questions about the validity of Water Resources South East’s public consultation process.
The proposed Abingdon Reservoir would flood farmland between Steventon, East Hanney and Drayton. It is being suggested as one of several options to meet future water shortfalls across the region.
If given the go-ahead, the reservoir would be up to 15m high on a slope with a width of between 300 and 500m.
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The district council – which represents the site of the proposed reservoir – has set out a wide range of concerns about the proposals, including the size of the carbon footprint of the construction project.
The council has said the reservoir should be a “last resort” and questioned whether Thames Water has truly exhausted all the other options that would have a lower carbon footprint.
Other options proposed by Water Resources South East and Thames Water instead of a reservoir, include the transfer of water from other parts of the country and more recycling of wastewater. One option is the Severn – Thames Transfer Scheme – an ambitious project to provide additional capacity of water to South East England during.
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In the council’s response it suggests Thames Water should be more “ambitious” and not look to use “old infrastructure solutions such as reservoirs”. Instead, the council suggests investing in nature-based solutions like encouraging customer behaviour change so they consume less and take responsibility for their own water use.
Councillor Emily Smith, Leader of the Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “A reservoir of this scale would be environmentally disastrous, doing permanent and irreversible harm to an enormous area of the Vale’s countryside. Just as we’re trying to tackle the climate emergency it’s hard to think of a more carbon intensive activity than a construction project of this magnitude.”
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A Thames Water spokesperson the water company has not ruled out other options.
The spokesperson said: “There is always a carbon cost associated with any new infrastructure development, but should the reservoir proceed to development we would look to use existing and emerging low carbon technology during construction to reduce carbon produced as much as possible.
“Once built, the reservoir would require a relatively low amount of power to refill and would also have the potential for renewable energy to be generated from the water it releases, allowing us to offset some of the carbon cost of construction.”
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