Water companies spend millions of pounds a year removing harmful nitrates from drinking water and the problem seems to be getting worse. Most of this pollution relates to agriculture, so various incentive schemes to stop nitrates getting in to water have been trialled with farmers. However, the effectiveness of such schemes and the resultant reduction in nitrate pollution needs to be better understood at catchment scale.
This is one of the challenges that the Yorkshire Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme (iCASP) is seeking to address, so iCASP has been submitting evidence to an Environmental Audit Committee inquiry into Nitrates.
This Summer, iCASP will be publishing a review of what we know about how agricultural land can be managed to deliver a range of public goods including a reduction in nitrate pollution as phase one of a new iCASP project. The review will be a useful source of information to inform the government’s approach to nitrate regulation and management.