Water Industry Transparency – Victory for Fish Legal

This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Water Industry Transparency – Victory for Fish Legal

This is good news and shows why we need ATr.

I would like something similar to happen to The Oil Industry in the North Sea. The demise of the cod, and the rise of the oil industry in this area is in my opinion no coincidence.

Ron The Hat Clay said:

I would like something similar to happen to The Oil Industry in the North Sea. The demise of the cod, and the rise of the oil industry in this area is in my opinion no coincidence.

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What's your evidence for suggesting that Ron?

whey hey, good on ya angling trust, any hope with a possible timeline is a massive step in the right direction

if I'm reading this right, the argument is whether these private water companies are 'public authorities' and are subject to current legislation relating to 'public authories'

why is it, some monsieur, madamoiselle or portugeezer is deciding what I should know about the companies that supply me with water

whether they're 'public authorities' or not, should be irrelevant, their activities regarding our water should be as transparent as the final product they supply

on national radio a while ago, a thames water director responded to the question, why do you need to be exempt from freedom of information requests ?
he replied, to protect our business from the competition
meaning, you're right to know what we may do with the 3% of freshwater in the world, is secondary to our business continuing to make an extensive profit

it dont get no better than collecting something free, that falls from the sky, repackaging it, making a huge profit, taking those profits away from where they were generated, and insisting the consumer dont have freedom of information rights

has anyone asked any of these water companies if they are investing in the rush for hydropower on our rivers
if they are, going by past behaviour, it must be a right earner
if they aint, why not, they no more about the stuff needed to turn a turbine than most

Bluenose said:

What's your evidence for suggesting that Ron?

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Seemingly none at all; just another outrageous and unsupportable statement by our Ron against his bête noir, the Oil Industry.

It's probably based on the rise of cod-liver oil
Mushroom makes some good points though.

Well I've worked on a number of offshore installations in the N Sea over the last 25 years. Some very modern and some were floating scrap yards. However, I'm not sure where you think the platforms are effecting the fish stocks Ron. All that was injected into the formations was sea water or in the case of AGWI, gas was re injected. Sea water was removed to use as cooling water and pumped back in. The only waste going in was from the kitchen. This was turned into soup and pumped into the sea where it was eaten by the waiting jelly fish and the odd shark.

Sorry Ron the collapse of the fish stocks and cod in particular was happening pre 1970s, It just wasn't acknowledged that it was happening.
Head stuck firmly up bum by Govts about over explotation of the stocks.

They're still at it if truth be known.

Whilst not a lover of the Oil Industry myself, I think we must look to the way we, man, has used the sea as our refuge tip for every noxious substance we've ever produced.

Think of any substance man has ever used since the birth of the industrial revolution and that substance has and still does turn up in fish flesh the world over.

In the case of Fish Legal the claim of "Victory" is somewhat premature and the EU Court of Justice could come down on the side of the Water Industry and say they are not Public Bodies.
At best they have won a battle but the war goes on.

Their claim of Victory could well turn into a Prescott egg on face.

geoff thanks m8
the state of our seas/oceans, is worse than our rivers
there is an area of floating debris/rubbish, the size of texas, that is the result of the japanese tsunami
wherever you dredge the ocean/sea bottom, plastic is retrieved
plankton, jelly fish, mammals and sea birds are all found with plastics within them
perhaps the fishing industry is the best example of venture capitalism, you ensure your operation is registered away from the area you target, you then despatch an armada of factory ships, remove most of the life from the targeted area, ****** of somewhere else, and leave those that depend on the areas resources with a new supermarket, so the populace can purchase processed food
and any solutions to remedy these problems, are watered down by the inter dependancy that big business generates

if you've any doubt that the populace are spoon fed, and intellectually dumbed downed, then recall your chemistry lessons, mercury was and still is labelled as a poison, absorbed into the human body via touch or gas
so despite this being known, why was it put into your teeth in amalgam fillings
do you remember mummy taking you to the dentist, the dentician wearing gloves and a mask to prevent his contamination
next on the agenda seems to be fluoride, where it occurs naturally it has to be monitored, so it doesn't poison the local residents
its in toothpaste and instructions are a pea sized amount, not to be swallowed
check out what the effects of mercury and fluoride poisoning are for yourself,
and if your water company wanna add it to your drinking water, look upon them as you would your childhood dentist, its alright mummy/the nanny state says its safe

This is of course purely an opinion and is based on the following work I did in the period 1999 to 2003.

Many off shore oil platforms inject seawater under high pressure into the undersea rock strata. This pressure is used to "push up" oil. This water has to be filtered down to levels approaching 2 microns. Various methods are used for this but to achieve 2 microns means using absolute rating pleated cartridge filters mounted in housings.

This "produced" water is pumped back to the platform where entrained oil in the form of droplets and emulsion is removed, prior to it being returned to the sea. In earlier days, devices such as hydrocylones were employed. These are fine for droplets but no good for emulsions.

Then certain authorities, worried about oil pollution, started listing maximum remaining oil content on produced water. Figures better than 5 ppm come to mind. Actually this was easy to achieve using high quality oil adsorbant materials in specially designed cartridges using 'O' ring sealing. The problem being that the Oil people didn't like the price, nor the amount of labour required to change out the cartridges, even though one material I discovered could remove heavy metals such as lead and mercury.

As a result, I spent a certain amount of time over several years trying to design a cartridge system that not only worked, but was cheap as chips.

In the end I gave up and concentrated on projects that gave a better return.

That was nearly 10 years ago. Maybe better and cheaper materials have been found.

nice one ron, so oil companies didn't want to fit better filters
well guess what, our contries water companies dont wanna fit carbon filters to remove endochrines for exactly the same reason

you're statement 'in the end I gave up', epitomises how strong the corporate sector is, compared to those that wish to leave a better place for their descendants

tell it loud, 'n'tell it proud, be a man not a mouse and maybe it'll inspire someone else

Thanks Mushroom, you have obviously had some experience of filtration techniques.

I worked in the filtration industry for nearly 40 years and was involved with many different applications, from hydraulic oil to compressed gases and from injectables to beer and wine. There isn't much we cannot take out of any product, and with the advent of nanofiltration and a few incredible new materials, this industry is going to grow.

The Oil Industry was one of the worst clients I ever had to deal with. They expected you as a vendor to bow to their every whim, yet some of the engineers I met were bloody useless, and totally brainwashed by the company.

The story is much the same with water companies.

There are many contaminants in your tap water, and I strongly suggest if you value your health to fit a decent filter on your water supply. This will incorporate activated carbon for sure, as well as other substances which will remove other nasties.

nice one ron
perhaps you might wanna share some of your filtration knowledge with the water companies, doh, they've already got it
well feel free to share it with us, maybe the ATr will notice and share it with the minister mr benyon