Wastes From British Paper Mills
WILFRID T. ROBERTS, Technical Liaison Officer
Wiggins Teape Research and Development Ltd.
Beaconsfield, England
INTRODUCTION
I think it important to mention at the outset, two fundamental differences
between the British and American Paper Industries. 1) We do very little pulping ourselves, relying in the main on imported pulp and waste paper; and 2) We have no
really large rivers.
As a result of the first our effluent problem is easier than yours but because of
the second our standards tend to be more severe.
I have attempted in this paper to describe the legal conditions appertaining to
British paper mills and our efforts to comply with them.
THE LEGAL POSITION
There has been a spate of water and effluent legislation since 1948. For the
purpose of Administration the United Kingdom is divided into River Authority areas
on which are represented Local Government Authorities, Agriculture, Industry and
Fishing  and  their  main concern is with water conservation and river pollution.
Water Conservation
As in most industrial countries the consumption of water for domestic purposes
industry and agriculture is increasing at an alarming rate. Taking the country as a
whole there is a more than adequate supply but the rain falls in the wrong places at
the wrong times. The position is particularly acute in the highly populated south east
corner of England. Already serious consideration is being given to abstracting more
water from the lower reaches of the River Thames which will mean a tightening up of
effluent standards and exploration for further ground water is also being made.
In order to effect some measure of control over water abstractions the Water
Resources Act was passed in 1963 applying to England and Wales only. This is a very
long Act containing 137 clauses and numerous appendices so obviously it cannot be
discussed in detail here, but the basic thinking is that River Authorities must have
complete control of all water resources in their areas. To do this they must make an
assessment of the quantity available, decide how this should be augmented and also
decide on what are the minimum acceptable flows of streams. All this work must be
paid for by the abstractors and a licensing scheme has been evolved to cover this.
All abstractors must have a license from the River Authority (costs $12 a year) and
from April 1st, 1969 the water must be paid for. Initially the charge will be small
but like everything else it will increase and we already know that charges in Essex
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