Pollution

• Diffuse pollution
• Pollution incidents

•  There were over 2.5 thousand pollution incidents reported in the South West at the end of 2010; 11% of the total reported in England and Wales.  2.7 thousand were reported in 2009, a reduction of 6.3%.

• 11 Category 1 pollution incidents were reported during 2008, 2009 and now 2010.  Last year 9 impacted water, 1 air and 1 the land.

• Agriculture was once again the source of the most serious polluting events, accounting for a quarter of serious Incidents, in the region (Serious incidents are classified as either Category 1 or Category 2 impact pollutions).

• Nationally, the primary polluting source of serious incidents has been identified as being the Waste sector, however within the South West region the primary polluting source is related to the Agricultural sector activity and results from land spreading run off and slurry storage.

Pollution incidents such as oil spills or the accidental release of raw sewage can damage the environment, harm wildlife and pose a threat to human health.

Pollution incidents should be reported through the Environment Agency’s 24-hour pollution hotline – 0800 80 70 60.

Diffuse pollution can arise from many sources, these are generally dispersed and diverse in nature.  This type of non point source pollution can arise from both current and past land use, or industrial activity, in both the agriculture and urban environments. Sources may individually be small, but their cumulative impact can be long term and extremely damaging to the environment.  The Environment Agency is focussing with greater efforts on this chronic form of pollution within identified ‘hotspot’ target area’s.

For more information at a local level on waste and other topics, please see the Local Profiles