Plans to create a wetland have been approved amid fears it could contaminate drinking water supply. The scheme for the “engineered” landscape in Chilham would help address issues relating to pollution in the River Stour catchment caused by wastewater from housing. But while water bosses felt the design of the landscaped wetland might harm the supply, Ashford Borough Council planning officers and councillors believed there are enough safeguards in place to prevent that.
The site near the junction of Ashford Road and Branch Road is next to the Great Stour and about 330 metres from South East Water’s drinking water treatment works. Emma Goddard, head of environment for South East Water, told a meeting of ABC’s planning committee on September 11: “We have serious concerns about this application in its current form due to the risk of contamination posed to the local water supply. “The proposed wetland is inappropriately positioned in a groundwater protection zone highlighting the vulnerability of a critical public source supplying more than 13 million litres of drinking water every day to the Ashford area.
“We remain concerned about firstly the long-term effectiveness of the proposed wetland design and the risk due to its proximity combined with the transmissivity rate to our abstractions.” Miss Goddard explained that water abstracted in Chilham is naturally filtered through an aquifer and is currently good quality so very little treatment is required. She said the.