Severn Trent’s Farm to Tap scheme, which aims to mitigate the impact of pesticide run off on water quality, has seen its most successful year to date, with no metaldehyde water quality failures at its treatment works.

Laura Flower, Severn Trent catchment management scientist, gives her insight into why this might be, despite the high levels of rainfall over the winter.

“There were two major factors at play helping to stop metaldehyde reaching watercourses between September and December 2019,” she says.

“First of all, 800 farms in our region signed up to Farm to Tap, which financially supports them in switching to a ferric phosphate alternative or making management changes to significantly reduce run-off.

“We also know that less slug pellets than normal were applied, as 24% of the farmers signed up were unable to drill any winter crops due to the extensive wet weather,” says Laura.

Severn Trent is now in the process of rewarding farmers in successful sub-catchments up to £5/ha. Those who signed up to the scheme and were unable to drill, but operate in a successful sub-catchment, will receive a goodwill payment of £100.

Laura explains that even with the lack of planting, a handful of sub-catchments still succumbed to the rainfall and failed local water quality tests. But the good news is that the higher quality water from other catchments diluted this and meant drinking water standards were upheld at treatment works.

“We’re now working closely with the few farmers in the failed areas to understand how we can support them to resolve the issue. We’re offering a £25 incentive to these farms for filling in a simple survey to help with this.”

Laura adds that while the costs initially seem high for Severn Trent, every £1 spent on catchment management saves Severn Trent £20 in treatment, meaning customer bills are kept as low as possible.

“For this reason, we will be continuing the Farm to Tap scheme for 2020/21 before metaldehyde is completely banned from use in 2021, where we will develop a similar scheme for different pesticides.”

For more information please visit https://www.stwater.co.uk/about-us/environment/catchment-management/farm-to-tap/