Targeted land protection & catchment-based approaches

Challenges

The land owned by United Utilities surrounding the reservoirs is also used for agricultural purposes by tenant farmers for food production. It is an important spot for biodiversity, with around 17,000 hectares designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Industrial pollution and agricultural activities have damaged many habitats around the catchment areas, and large areas of SSSI were designated by Natural England as being in unfavorable and declining condition. Furthermore, years of drainage of the uplands has caused peat bogs that are 5,000 years old to dry out and erode, releasing colour and sediment into watercourses and millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Removing colour requires additional chemicals, power, and waste handling that meets increasingly demanding drinking water quality standards; this resulted in significant increases in annual operational costs for the company. 

Actions & Impacts

United Utilities developed SCaMP with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). It aims to help protect and improve water quality; reduce the rate of increase in raw water colour; reduce or delay the need for future capital investment in additional water treatment; deliver government targets for SSSIs; ensure a sustainable future for the agricultural tenants; enhance and protect the natural environment; and help build resilience to climate change. SCaMP 1 (2005 to 2010) included projects across 27,000 hectares of the company’s water catchment areas in the Peak District and the Forest of Bowland. Working with farm tenants and in conjunction with partners, such as the RSPB, Natural England, and the Forestry Commission, the utility invested in moorland restoration, woodland management, farm infrastructure improvements, and watercourse protection. After the first five years, water industry regulators Ofwat, DWI, the Environment Agency, and Natural England supported further investment for catchment management between 2010 and 2015 across 30,000 hectares in Cumbria and South Lancashire (SCaMP 2).  

Activities included: restoring blanket bogs by blocking drainage ditches and gullies, restoring areas of eroded and exposed peat, restoring hay meadows, establishing new woodlands, stabilising land through scrub planting, restoring heather moorland, improving farm facilities with better livestock housing, providing new waste management facilities to reduce runoff pollution of watercourses, and fencing to keep livestock away from areas such as rivers and streams and from special habitats.

Another approach of SCaMP is the establishment of drinking water safeguard zones (SZ). These zones are drinking water catchments where water quality in rivers, reservoirs, or groundwater is deteriorating and is becoming harder to treat due to human activities on the land. SZ can be used to target measures, advice, and incentive schemes for landowners and managers to help improve water quality. Within the North West, the Environment Agency has designated 20 surface water and nine groundwater catchments as safeguard zones.  

The utility’s latest approach for tackling water quality issues in lakes, rivers, and coastal waters is Catchment Wise. Building on SCaMP, this initiative aims to drive a similar change around wastewater issues—sharing expertise about how land is used and managed across the region and tackling pollution at the source to improve the quality of water. Catchment Wise is an initiative in partnership with other organisations across the region.