26
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some will be enforced by SEPA using its “consent to discharge” powers under
COPA, strengthened and modified in the Water Environment (Controlled
Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 which provide for registration and licensing
of discharges.
1.11 The WFD and Aquaculture in Loch Creran
In this section I am going to use Loch Creran as an example of how the WFD might
come to bear on aquaculture. Some of my account is factual, and draws on material
published by SEPA concerning its implementation of the WFD in Scotland. Some,
however, must be conjectural, both because River Basin Management Plans are not
due for publication until 2009, and because the Creran river basin, including the
loch and adjacent coastal water, is only one of many such basins on the west coast
of Scotland, and detailed plans by water body are initially only available for the
“protected areas” within each. Nevertheless, I will roughly stick to the format set
out for plans in WFD Annex VII, and will include: (i) a description and typing,
including identification of reference conditions; (ii) a summary of significant pressures and impacts; (iii) a list of protected areas; (iv) a description of monitoring
networks; (v) a list of specific environmental objectives; and, (vi) a summary of the
“programmes of measures” required to achieve these objectives. All, of course,
with the focus on aquaculture.
The first step in the application of the WFD in Scotland was the identification in
2003 of River Basin Districts, defined in the Directive as: the area of land and sea,
made up of one or more neighbouring river basins together with their associated
groundwaters and coastal waters, which is… the main unit for management of river
basins. Most waters in Scotland, including loch Creran, fall into a single “Scotland”
RBD. In contrast with many parts of continental Europe, where RBDs correspond
to the catchments and coastal waters of single large rivers, the Scotland RBD
includes many rivers, especially on the west coast, where rainfall is heavy and short
steep rivers discharge into sea-lochs. Hence the Creran river basin and associated
coastal water is but a small part of the Scotland RBD, and receives no specific
description in the account so far published of the environmental features of the
Scotland district. So the reader can turn to the description of loch Creran earlier in
this chapter.
Completion of part (i) requires identification of the type of water body exemplified by loch Creran, so that reference conditions can be specified. Annex II of the
Directive sets out the principles for two (alternative) typologies, and the UK, in
collaboration with the ROI, has implemented these principles as a set of types for
the coastal and transitional waters around our islands (UKTAG 2003). Creran can
thus be identified as a coastal water of type 12, a “deep sea-loch” in the “Atlantic
Ocean” ecoregion of Annex XI of the WFD. It is a coastal water because its depthand time- averaged salinity is above 30 and hence close to that of seawater (in contrast to transitional waters, in which the mean salinity is less than 30), and a “deep
P. Tett
some will be enforced by SEPA using its “consent to discharge” powers under
COPA, strengthened and modified in the Water Environment (Controlled
Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 which provide for registration and licensing
of discharges.
1.11 The WFD and Aquaculture in Loch Creran
In this section I am going to use Loch Creran as an example of how the WFD might
come to bear on aquaculture. Some of my account is factual, and draws on material
published by SEPA concerning its implementation of the WFD in Scotland. Some,
however, must be conjectural, both because River Basin Management Plans are not
due for publication until 2009, and because the Creran river basin, including the
loch and adjacent coastal water, is only one of many such basins on the west coast
of Scotland, and detailed plans by water body are initially only available for the
“protected areas” within each. Nevertheless, I will roughly stick to the format set
out for plans in WFD Annex VII, and will include: (i) a description and typing,
including identification of reference conditions; (ii) a summary of significant pressures and impacts; (iii) a list of protected areas; (iv) a description of monitoring
networks; (v) a list of specific environmental objectives; and, (vi) a summary of the
“programmes of measures” required to achieve these objectives. All, of course,
with the focus on aquaculture.
The first step in the application of the WFD in Scotland was the identification in
2003 of River Basin Districts, defined in the Directive as: the area of land and sea,
made up of one or more neighbouring river basins together with their associated
groundwaters and coastal waters, which is… the main unit for management of river
basins. Most waters in Scotland, including loch Creran, fall into a single “Scotland”
RBD. In contrast with many parts of continental Europe, where RBDs correspond
to the catchments and coastal waters of single large rivers, the Scotland RBD
includes many rivers, especially on the west coast, where rainfall is heavy and short
steep rivers discharge into sea-lochs. Hence the Creran river basin and associated
coastal water is but a small part of the Scotland RBD, and receives no specific
description in the account so far published of the environmental features of the
Scotland district. So the reader can turn to the description of loch Creran earlier in
this chapter.
Completion of part (i) requires identification of the type of water body exemplified by loch Creran, so that reference conditions can be specified. Annex II of the
Directive sets out the principles for two (alternative) typologies, and the UK, in
collaboration with the ROI, has implemented these principles as a set of types for
the coastal and transitional waters around our islands (UKTAG 2003). Creran can
thus be identified as a coastal water of type 12, a “deep sea-loch” in the “Atlantic
Ocean” ecoregion of Annex XI of the WFD. It is a coastal water because its depthand time- averaged salinity is above 30 and hence close to that of seawater (in contrast to transitional waters, in which the mean salinity is less than 30), and a “deep