Ø Catchment Sensitive Farming South East & Thames River Basin District Strategy -‐ Catchment Sensitive Farming / Natural England The strategy outlines the approach for the delivery of the 3rd Phase of Catchment Sensitive Farming in the South East river basin district. It sets out the list of measures available to farmers to help mitigate the impact of their activities on the water environment and shows the priority areas for targeting advice and funding in the Test and Itchen Catchment. There is a degree of uncertainty over what funding will be committed to Catchment Sensitive Farming beyond 2015. Other Initiatives: Ø Rural Sediment Tracing Project – Environment Agency Ø Anglers Monitoring Initiative – Riverfly Partnership Ø South Downs National Park (SDNP) Collaborative Nitrate Modelling Project – SDNP Authority Ø River Catchment Invertebrate Fingerprinting Programme – Wessex Chalk Stream & Rivers Trust Ø Draft Business Plan for 2015 – 2020 – Southern Water Ø Development of a Catchment Management Strategy – Portsmouth Water 4.4. What can the partnership do? Sediment Pathways: The Test & Itchen SSSI Diffuse Water Pollution Plan identifies an opportunity for the Catchment Partnership to co-‐ordinate efforts with local authorities to reduce sediment and other contaminants (eg pesticides, oils etc) from tracks, roads and urban areas, as well as other activities and landholdings. This opportunity has also been independently identified by a number of stakeholders. Non-‐Mains Sewerage: The Test & Itchen SSSI Diffuse Water Pollution Plan also identifies an opportunity for the Catchment Partnership to deliver an awareness campaign for best practice management of non-‐mains effluent. Again, a number of stakeholders particularly from the upper catchment have indicated that they would be supportive of this kind of approach. Diffuse Water Pollution from Agriculture: Stakeholders agree that the Partnership should explore opportunities for catchment management and delivering on-‐farm advice to support work already being carried out, particularly through Catchment Sensitive Farming, to mitigate diffuse water pollution from agriculture. Groundwater – Nitrates: There is an opportunity to support the forthcoming delivery phase of the Collaborative Nitrate Modelling Project, utilising catchment management as a tool for mitigating the rising levels of nitrates in the catchment’s chalk aquifers. Targeting nitrates will also afford an opportunity to
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