Welsh water is only exported to the North West of England and the Midlands because it ‘saves’ damaging the environment in England and the Welsh landscape treated as a cheap colonial resource.

Further south, there are already two tunnels through the Hafren estuary. The electricity tunnel and the rail tunnel. Both suffer a problem of the vast quantities of fresh water that have to be pumped out. It was named the Great Spring when the Severn tunnel was bored. It’s from an aquifer (Mendip run off) below the pennant sandstone cap. This water is pumped out on the English side at Sudbrook, is not needed as there is ample water supply to Bristol, as David Robins eloquently describes.

The ‘water shortage’ in England only really exists in London and the home counties and has become ‘critical’ in Kent due to over-abstraction from the chalk aquifer. There is a freshwater aquifer in the chalk marl of the channel tunnel but this water ‘sealed out’ by the concrete tube, as abstraction would result in aquafer drainage causing environmental damage to the landscape on the English side. However the aquifer of north Kent has already been over abstracted resulting in environmental damage (chalk streams drying up).

https://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/shaleGas/aquifersAndShales/maps/aquifers/Chalk.html

It is for this reason that the likely channel for water replenishment to the South East of England would be a Birmingham to Oxford connection, with Birmingham getting it’s main supply from the reservoirs of mid Wales. It is for this reason the recourse is not Welsh controlled and why Severn Trent Water owns that chunk of Wales. It should also be noted that the once proposed ‘Cambrian Mountains National Park’ never came into existence, and much of the landholding is now owned by concerns from the West Midlands.

I would expect a future increase in reservoir capacity in mid Wales to be proposed under the cloak of ‘protecting the environment’. The environment in England, that is, and to hell with Wales. They could blame it on ‘global warming’.

https://mrorigamidotorg.wordpress.com/2018/06/12/welsh-labour-embarrasses-wales-and-insults-the-leader-of-the-greatest-most-powerful-country-on-earth/

David, your opening phrase sums up the Anglo attitude that Wales is one big reservoir to be tapped at will. We’ve had this recent quote from some Trade union officer (who tried a mealy mouthed retraction later) and of course the windbag Boris has come up with bright ideas about moving water resources to the South East in the past. Why don’t they fix their leaky pipes instead, stop clean water from just flowing away into the rest of the shit that lies under London? But there again that doesn’t fit the template of high profile vanity project which London types crave – if you ain’t spending big on some new shiny idea it ain’t worth talking about ! Sooner we cut them adrift and let them fend for themselves the better for the rest of us.

Claerwen, Clywedog. Same thing, innit?

Elan water, when it gets to the Frankley storage reservoir at Brum, could be piped to the Grand Union Canal and thence to London. When Elan was being planned, there was a race between Brum and London as to who could get the parliamentary powers first. Brum had more friends in the right places.

Severn water could indeed be moved via the Cotswolds canals. Bristol Water gets over half its total possible supply from the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal. Someone surely must be being paid for it but I doubt it’s Wales.

http://www.bristolwater.co.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Sources.pdf

Summers around here are ruined by low-flying aircraft.

My reading of the situation is that the Jones brothers pulled back from from expansion because they were antagonising their neighbours. This may even explain why they’re selling up. Nestle will have no such qualms. If I was a neighbour to Princes Gate I’d be worried.

Funny how the English think they can take the water for nothing and dump the expensive end of their social costs onto Wales without offering proper funding of the revenue and capital costs.

If the water table is being lowered as a result of water abstraction it should be a matter of concern to Natural Resources Wales who issue abstraction licences following technical assessment. Their role, as regulator, is to assess the wider impact of any proposal. Is the regulator asleep on the job again I ask myself.

http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7940/CBP-7940.pdf
C – Authors and Westminster House Library April 2018.

£160.00 Offshore Wind (20years)
£140.00 Onshore Wind (25years)

£95.50 Hinkey Point Nuclear (40years)
£77.50 Wylfa Nuclear (40years)

£168.00 Swansea Lagoon (35years)
£89.90 Swansea Lagoon (front weighted 90years)
£89.90 Swansea Lagoon (flat 120years)

We know that due to wear and tear and environmental conditions that the lifespan estimate of wind generation is accurately known. We also know that the lifespan of nuclear power stations due to previous investments across the globe (although costs of decommissioning and waste storage is not included and is an ongoing burden on the taxpayer). Thing about the lifespan of a tidal lagoon, is that it’s over 100 years, and this is the number that SHOULD be used in determining the strike price. The high figure assumes a lifespan of 35 years, which is nonsense, however, it’s the maximum lifespan determined on existing infrastructure investments by HM Treasury.

I think it can be assumed that after 35 years, Swansea will not disappear, so in reality the £89.90 strike price is not only reliable, it’s more robust than the others.