Evening Times - January 09, 2009
Group’s call to clean up Clyde
THE River Clyde has been given the worst possible rating for cleanliness by environment chiefs.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency branded a stretch of the river as simply bad' in a report.
Their judgement comes as SEPA set out a strategy for cleaning up Scotland's rivers and lochs by 2015.
The report says: "The Clyde area includes large rivers such as the Clyde and the Kelvin, and several large population centres.
"It also includes a large part of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.
"Some of the water environment in the area is in good condition, but other areas are showing impacts from a range of pressures.
"There are several key issues causing water bodies in the area to fail to achieve good' status. These include urban drainage pressures, pollution from rural sources and pressures from our industrial past.
"Not all pressures are being tackled effectively and some gaps remain. We need to consider how to fill these gaps."
The report adds that sewage treatment is particularly challenging for the Clyde area because it contains 20 large sewage treatment works, six of which discharge into the Clyde in a stretch of just 21 miles.
But it also says that the number of salmon breeding in the Clyde has steadily increased since the fish returned to the river in 1983.
Loch Lomond achieved only a moderate' rating, while Loch Leven was dismissed as bad'.
SEPA say that unless action is taken, Scotland's bodies of water will fail to reach required standards by the target date of 2015.
By Ewan Fergus