Abstraction in the Baldock area

Roedd y cais yn rhannol lwyddiannus.

Richard Meredith-Hardy

Dear Environment Agency

Please will you supply:

a) Historical abstraction volume figures for all the boreholes used for public water supply within the Groundwater Source Protection Zones Zone I - Inner Protection Zone and Zone II - Outer Protection zone, those zones being centered approximately on OS grid reference TL24273251 near Baldock, Hertfordshire.
For the avoidance of doubt, I am seeking daily, or if not available, monthly abstraction figures in a suitable currency such as MegaLitres/day for each borehole, from today back as far as your records allow; ideally back to 1930 when the first one was installed by the Lea Valley Water Co.

b) Details of abstraction licences for these same boreholes in Asset Management Periods 1 – 6 and those proposed for Asset Management Period 7 (AMP7) 2020-2025.

c) Details of any proposed new boreholes in the same area.

d) Historical volume figures for the Baldock Sewage Pumping Station [at Ivel Springs] figures in a suitable currency such as MegaLitres/day from this date back as far as your records allow.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Meredith-Hardy

Enquiries, Unit, Environment Agency

5 Atodiad

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Enquiries, Unit, Environment Agency

5 Atodiad

Dear Richard

 

I have passed your e-mail to the local customer team who will deal with
your request.

 

The Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations
state that a public authority must respond to requests for information
within 20 working days, but we aim to respond to all enquiries as quickly
as we can.

 

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Enquiries_EastAnglia, Environment Agency

6 Atodiad

Dear Richard,

 

Thank you for your enquiry of 30^th July 2019.

 

We are liaising with our technical teams to gather the data you have
requested and we will reply to you as soon as possible.  This will be no
later than 29^th August 2019, which is in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act (2000) and the Environmental Information Regulations
(2004). 

 

If we can be of further help, please do contact us quoting the reference
number.

 

Kind regards

Customers & Engagement Team, East Anglia Area

Environment Agency | Iceni House, Cobham Road, Ipswich IP3 9JD

Environment Agency | Bromholme Lane, Brampton, Huntingdon,
Cambridgeshire, PE28 4NE

[1][email address]
External: 0203 02 55472

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Richard Meredith-Hardy

Dear Environment Agency - Enquiries_East Anglia,

In your last message you stated: ...we will reply to you as soon as possible. This will be no later than 29th August 2019, which is in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (2000) and the Environmental Information Regulations (2004).

Well it's now 30th August 2019 and I don't yet seem to have received a reply, which places the Environment Agency in breach of its statutory obligations under the Freedom of Information legislation.

While the Environment Agency may find it acceptable to disregard its statutory obligations I am sure the Information Commissioner will not, so I look forward to your immediate reply.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Meredith-Hardy

Enquiries_EastAnglia, Environment Agency

9 Atodiad

Dear Richard

 

Thank you for your email.

 

We sincerely apologise for the delay in sending you a response regarding
the above request. We have attached a letter in response to your request,
however we are still liaising with our technical teams regarding providing
the historical abstraction volume figures requested. We hope to respond
to this part of your request early next week but will reply as soon as
possible. 

 

Please get in touch if you have any further queries or contact us within
two months if you would like us to review the information we have sent.

 

Please do contact me if I can be of further help.

 

If we can be of further help, please do contact us quoting the reference
number.

 

Kind regards

Customers & Engagement Team, East Anglia Area

Environment Agency | Iceni House, Cobham Road, Ipswich IP3 9JD

Environment Agency | Bromholme Lane, Brampton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire,
PE28 4NE

[1][email address]
External: 0203 02 55472

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Enquiries_EastAnglia, Environment Agency

6 Atodiad

Dear Richard

 

Further to our email of 30^th August, we now have the historical
abstraction volume figures information you have requested available,
however due to restrictions on the licensing terms for this information we
are unable to publish onto whatdotheyknow.com, as it is an open access
website.  We will be happy to provide you with the response directly to
you, with the licence conditions, if you could provide us with your direct
contact details.  Please contact us at:
[1][email address] with this information.

 

Kind regards

Customers & Engagement Team, East Anglia Area

Environment Agency | Iceni House, Cobham Road, Ipswich IP3 9JD

Environment Agency | Bromholme Lane, Brampton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire,
PE28 4NE

[2][email address]
External: 0203 02 55472

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Richard Meredith-Hardy

Dear Environment Agency, Enquiries_EastAnglia,

You put me in a difficult position because the same as you don't know my email address, I don't know yours - all email addresses are redacted as per https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/priv...

While I don't know what licence you are proposing to release the data under, perhaps the “Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005” or the "Open Government Licence", ultimately, even if this data is published on whatdotheyknow.com the obligation to respect the terms of its licence still exists for anyone who may be interested in it, so I'm not sure what you could be so concerned about; are water abstraction figures for three [of many] wells in the home counties really so secret?

UK’s Freedom of Information law is “applicant blind”, so anyone in the world can request the same data and get a copy of it, by publishing your response on whatdotheyknow.com, you are saving taxpayers’ money by preventing duplicate requests, and likely fostering good public relations too.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Meredith-Hardy

Gadawodd Richard Taylor anodiad ()

There is no EIR/FOI exemption for: "we're concerned release will lead to publication online".

What happens to material released following a FOI request shouldn't be their concern - as you've said in your response FOI is applicant blind.

I suggest pushing them to give you a response as required by FOI/EIR noting they've confirmed they hold the information requested, and asking them to either release it to the address for correspondence you've provided (the @whatdotheyknow.com address) or cite the exemption(s) in the legislation which they are relying on to withhold it.

Enquiries_EastAnglia, Environment Agency

6 Atodiad

Dear Richard

 

Thank you for your email.

 

The information you have asked for is restricted information which we can
only release under a Conditional Licence.  This licence does not permit
the information to be published online.  As the Whatdotheyknow website is
a public portal we are not permitted to do so.  We are not refusing to
provide you access to the information, we simply cannot provide access of
this particular information through the open access website.  We will
happily send it to you directly.

 

I can only suggest that if all email addresses are redacted by
whatdotheyknow.com that you contact us either by emailing us at the
address on the letter that was attached to our part response sent on 30^th
August for the attention of the East Anglia Area or telephoning us on 0203
02 55472. If these details have been redacted, please visit our website
for contact details.

 

If you unable to provide us with direct contact details, we can only
provide a redacted copy of the information via the Whatdotheyknow website
which will have all sensitive information redacted, including abstraction
locations.

 

If we can be of further help, please do contact us quoting the reference
number.

 

Kind regards

Customers & Engagement Team, East Anglia Area

Environment Agency | Iceni House, Cobham Road, Ipswich IP3 9JD

Environment Agency | Bromholme Lane, Brampton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire,
PE28 4NE

[1][email address]
External: 0203 02 55472

[2]03_twitter[3]01_facebook[4]02_youtube[5]04_flickr[6]05_linkedin
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dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Richard Meredith-Hardy

Dear Environment Agency, Enquiries_EastAnglia,

Could you cite the exemption(s) in the legislation which you are relying on to withhold this information?

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/200...

Yours sincerely,

Richard Meredith-Hardy

Enquiries_EastAnglia, Environment Agency

6 Atodiad

Dear Richard

 

Thank you for your email.

 

We are not we are not withholding the information, we simply cannot
provide access of this particular information through the open access
website.  We will happily send it to you directly. The information you
have asked for is restricted information which we can only release under a
Conditional Licence as follows:

 

o Water Abstractions (AfA135), coverage is xxxx  – Description: The
water abstractions dataset details all sites covered under the Water
Act 2003 where all abstractions of 20 cubic metres or more require an
abstraction licence.  The dataset consists of two tables: the first
holds details of all live water abstraction licences in England and
Wales. Expired, lapsed and revoked licences are excluded & the second
(supplementary) table holds details of maximum annual and maximum
daily abstraction quantities. The quantities are the maximum permitted
under the licence; they give an indication of the size of the
abstraction. Some licences may include aggregating conditions or other
conditions which restrict the abstraction; these are not included in
the dataset.  - Special Conditions: 1) The location of public water
supply abstraction sources must not be published to a resolution more
detailed than 1km2.  2) You may only sublicense others to use it if
you do so under a written licence which includes the terms (or
equivalent) of these conditions and the agreement and in particular
may not allow any period of use longer than the period licensed to you
(subject to clause 5, below).  3) Notwithstanding the fact that the
standard wording of the Environment Agency Conditional Licence
indicates that it is perpetual, this Licence has a limited duration of
one year at the end of which it will terminate automatically without
notice.  4) We have restricted use of the Information as a result of
legal restrictions placed upon us to protect National Security and
Personal Data.  5) The licensee may supply reports including a limited
specified geographical area not exceeding 100 square kilometres and
limited to internal use with no time restriction on use.  6) This
condition does not apply if use is limited to use that is authorised
by any statute or use that does not require a licence from us

 

If we publish the information by responding through the WDTK.com public
web portal we are breaking the conditions set out in the conditional
licence.  We are however able to provide the information directly, as we
have already explained.

 

Please can you either provide us with direct contact details or confirm
that you would prefer the redacted copy through WDTK.com, which would only
provide part of the information, due to the restrictions.  We would be
withholding this information under the Environmental Information
Regulations 12(5)(a) – national security and Reg 13(1) personal data.

 

Please be aware that we have put your request on hold until we receive
confirmation. If we do not receive a response within 3 months, your
request will be withdrawn.

 

If we can be of further help, please do contact us quoting the reference
number.

 

Kind regards

Customers & Engagement Team, East Anglia Area

Environment Agency | Iceni House, Cobham Road, Ipswich IP3 9JD

Environment Agency | Bromholme Lane, Brampton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire,
PE28 4NE

[1][email address]
External: 0203 02 55472

[2]03_twitter[3]01_facebook[4]02_youtube[5]04_flickr[6]05_linkedin
[7]cid:image008.jpg@01D2E50F.9815A070    

 

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