I watched the full report and felt sorry for the EA guy having to make all the excuses for, what is, a knee jerk reaction by the Government.
If I remember correctly they are not going to dredge the entire river, just sections, leaving equal sections untouched in-between.
I expect that next year they will go back and remove all the untouched section they left this time around.
The problem is obvious......
The fields are draining to quickly, the water is dragging off large quantities of soil with it, that soil then falls to the bottom of a slower flowing river (Parrett) and thus becomes 'silt'.
If the river flows fast because of pumping or extreme dredging the soil (sorry silt) would end up in Bridgewater Bay and eventually create mudbanks on the shoreline or silt beds in the sea.
The fact is the land is being depleted of all its topsoil and is gradually getting lower and lower below a sea level which is rising because of Global Warming.
Our Government is trying to fight a war against nature which is totally unwinable.
The money would be far better spent on relocating the populace of the Somerset Levels and allowing the whole area to return to whence it came...........a natural wetland.
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