An Usk salmon trying to ascend the weir at Brecon, built in the late 1700s to provide water at the top of the Brecon & Monmouthshire Canal. Changes made by Natural Resources Wales to the abstraction licence here and further downstream at Trosnant will better protect this fish species and the overall ecology of the Usk.
The Usk And Wye Abstraction Group (UWAG)
Formed in 2012, this was comprised of representatives from Natural Resources Wales, Welsh Water, Severn Trent, the Wye & Usk Foundation, the Canal & Rivers Trust and two independent specialists, John Lawson and Dr. Guy Mawle.
One of several salmon redds seen in the Usk at Brecon last week. A recent report on the river’s salmon stock has been published by Dr Guy Mawle.
Thursday 21st November, 2024
The Canal & Rivers Trust has lost an appeal against changes to its abstraction licence that allows water to be taken from the river Usk for the Brecon & Monmouthshire Canal.
At a time of never-ending bad news for the river, this ruling will be seen as very welcome by those concerned with its ecology.
Ecological damage
In summer months, much of the Usk’s flow has previously been abstracted at Brecon weir to maintain the canal. And for some time, this has been known to have an adverse effect on the ecology of this highly protected river, particularly its Atlantic salmon.
During the drought in 2022, the abstraction was taking up to 30% of the Usk’s flow to maintain the canal. Reducing the flows at Brecon has degraded the habitat available for juvenile salmon in the Usk downstream of the weir. In addition, this water could have been vital for the distressed salmon that were reported further downstream at the time.
With the Usk’s salmon populations classified as “at risk” of extinction, further losses cannot be sustained or justified.
Just as crucial is the delay caused by lower flows to downstream migration of young salmon (smolts) making their way out to sea. In research still to be published, Natural Resources Wales found that 75% of the smolts they monitored leaving the Usk in 2022 perished before they reached the sea and that the losses were highest near Brecon weir.
In a river whose salmon population is officially classified as ‘at risk’ of extinction, these losses cannot be sustained or justified.
Natural Resources Wales’s ‘Usk Core Management Plan’ states that low flows are damaging the conservation status of the river. And as far back as 2010, the ‘Review of Consents’ identified the Usk’s canal abstractions as unsustainable.
In 2012, the Wye and Usk Foundation challenged Natural Resources Wales on the outcomes of the review and its conclusions for licences held by water companies and the Canal & Rivers Trust.
Solving the issue
Following that, the Usk and Wye Abstraction Group (UWAG) was formed to devise new abstraction licences for both rivers that were sustainable. The group proposed ways that abstractions could be supported by releases from the reservoirs so that water could be taken without any adverse impacts on flows, therefore meeting the Habitats Directive requirements for designated species.
These proposals were implemented by Welsh Water. On the Usk, however, the Canal & Rivers Trust chose not to adopt them and instead continue with their previous abstraction regime, which at the time enjoyed exemption from licensing.
Natural Resources Wales deserves much credit for its determination in seeing these changes through. It has fought hard and won a legal battle for a Welsh SAC river.
It took until 2022 for Natural Resources Wales to impose new licences and conditions on the previously exempt abstractions at Brecon and at the other canal abstraction at Trosnant on the Afon Lwyd. But instead of working towards a common goal to protect the Usk, the Canal & Rivers Trust refused to accept them and appealed the regulator’s decision.
Having now lost that appeal, the canal’s abstraction licences will be linked to river flow. The amount of water that can be taken will reduce as flows drop, to ensure that enough water remains within the Usk to support migratory salmon. And like other abstraction licences, the canal must stop taking river water altogether to meet “hands off” flow conditions.
Praise for the regulator
Natural Resources Wales deserves a great deal of credit for its determination in what has been a very long, drawn-out process, one that probably could and should have been resolved years ago. The regulator has fought hard and won a legal battle for a Welsh SAC river. The ecology of the Usk and its salmon population will benefit.
Credit must also be given to the members of the Usk And Wye Abstraction Group for their work in devising a workable solution over ten years ago.
This is not the end, however. The current abstraction licence conditions for the Usk only meet the minimum required by the Habitats Directive. The Usk And Wye Abstraction Group’s proposals went further – they supported additional releases from the reservoirs to mimic natural river spates to help salmon migration and spawning. These are in the process of being adopted on the Wye but Welsh Water has been unable to progress new measures in the Usk until a solution to the canal problem was found.
Hopefully, now that all licences are in place, further support to Atlantic salmon and other migratory fish species can be introduced. Never has this been more important, as Dr Guy Mawle, a specialist in Usk fisheries, has detailed in his recent report.