2022 No. 1089
The Yorkshire Water Services Limited (River Ouse, Moor Monkton) Drought Order 2022
Made
Coming into force
Yorkshire Water Services Limited (“the Company”) has made an application for an ordinary drought order under section 73(3)(b) of the Water Resources Act 1991 (“the Act”)1.
The Secretary of State is satisfied that proper notices of the application have been published and served by the Company in accordance with paragraph 1 of Schedule 8 to the Act2 and no objections to the application have been made.
The Secretary of State is satisfied that, by reason of an exceptional shortage of rain, a serious deficiency of supplies of water is threatened in the Company’s area of supply.
It appears to the Secretary of State expedient to make the provisions in this Order with a view to meeting this deficiency.
The Secretary of State makes this Order in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 73(1) and 74(2)(f) and (5) of, and paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 8 to, the Act3.
Citation, commencement and expiry1
This Order—
a
may be cited as the Yorkshire Water Services Limited (River Ouse, Moor Monkton) Drought Order 2022; and
b
comes into force on 26th October 2022 and ceases to have effect on 25th April 2023.
Interpretation2
In this Order—
“the Canal & River Trust Licence” means the abstraction licence numbered NE/027/0024/065 issued by the Agency4on 31st March 2017, which authorises the Canal & River Trust to abstract water from the River Ouse at Moor Monkton, North Yorkshire, to the extent and manner, and subject to the terms and conditions, set out in the Schedule of Conditions to that Licence5;
“the Company” means Yorkshire Water Services Limited;
“the Company’s Licence” means the abstraction licence numbered 2/27/24/158 issued by the Agency on 5th December 2003, which authorises the Company to abstract water from the River Ouse at Moor Monkton, North Yorkshire, to the extent and manner, and subject to the terms and conditions, set out in the Schedule of Conditions to that Licence6.
Modification of the maximum quantity of water authorised to be abstracted under the Canal & River Trust Licence and the Company’s Licence3
While this Order is in force, the Schedule of Conditions to the Canal & River Trust Licence is to be read as if—
a
in condition 9.1, for “150 megalitres”, there were substituted “210 megalitres”
;
b
in condition 9.2, for “72 megalitres”, there were substituted “132 megalitres”
;
c
in condition 9.3, for “10 megalitres”, there were substituted “70 megalitres”
.
Modification of the maximum quantity of water authorised to be abstracted under the Company’s Licence4
While this Order is in force, the Schedule of Conditions to the Company’s Licence is to be read as if for condition 10.7(b) there were substituted—
Conditions 10.1-10.3 shall be replaced by the following Conditions—
10.1 Abstraction at all times under this licence shall reduce without delay to 210 Ml/d when the flow in the River Ouse, as measured at the Agency’s gauging station at Skelton (NGR: SE568 554), is equal to or less than 1,000 Ml/d (11.574 cubic metres per second (cumecs)).
10.2 Abstraction at all times under this licence shall reduce without delay to 132 Ml/d when the flow in the River Ouse as measured at the Agency’s gauging station at Skelton is equal to or less than 650 Ml/d.
10.3 Abstraction at all times under this licence shall reduce without delay to 70 Ml/d when the flow in the River Ouse as measured at the Agency’s gauging station at Skelton is equal to or less than 400 Ml/d.
Monitoring conditions5
While this Order is in force, the Company must undertake the environmental monitoring set out in the document titled “Yorkshire Water’s Drought Plan 2022: Updated Environmental Monitoring Plan”7 dated September 2022, including in particular the Reach Overview Sheet Ouse 1 in Appendix A.58 to that document.
Supplemental provision6
For the purposes of regulation 19(3)(d) of the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) Regulations 20159 nothing in this Order is to be taken as authorising any event causing environmental damage.
(This note is not part of the Order)