The Environment Agency has launched another four-week consultation into EDF’s refusal to install an Acoustic Fish Deterrent (AFD) on the two massive cooling water intake heads 3 kilometres offshore from the Hinkley Point C nuclear site. See Briefing below.
The Agency is now being asked to vary the operational Water Discharge Activity (WDA) permit, to remove conditions that relate to an Acoustic Fish Deterrent (AFD) and add a waste stream for discharge from the Fish Recovery and Return system (FRR).
If these changes go ahead EDF will then have to apply to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) for a variation to the Development Control Order to remove the requirement to install Acoustic Fish Deterrents (AFDs) on the cooling water intakes. In order for them to have the best chance of persuading the Inspectors to Permit the removal, EDF is in discussion with interested parties, including the Environment Agency, about the measures they plan to take to improve the prospects of fish populations and its aim is that Hinkley Point C won’t have a negative impact on marine life in the Bristol Channel.
Stop Hinkley Spokesperson Katy Attwater said: “It looks to us very much like the Environment Agency is being forced to make a decision which conservation groups fear will result in the death of millions of fish every day. The Severn Estuary supports some of the most important and protected habitats in the UK, EDF appears to be absolutely determined not to spend the money to install AFD’s and is pressurising the Agency into backing down. This change would be disastrous for the Severn estuary and all the fish species it supports, to breed and travel into its tributaries, nine of the greatest rivers of England and Wales.”