The Environment Agency says it is ‘unlikely to revisit’ the study which resulted in the closure of a pumping station despite coming under pressure to do so following devastating floods.
Homes and fields around Billingborough, Pointon and Boston were flooded on Monday last week as a result of the extreme weather which has sparked calls for the Black Sluice Pumping Station to be brought back into operation.
The 1940s Boston pumping station has a sluice gate to the side which currently allows the South Forty Foot Drain — which has suffered overtopping due to record river levels on Monday last week- to drain into The Haven at low tides. But the station and its pumps were decommissioned several years ago.
The South Forty Foot rose to ‘record levels’ which resulted in severe flooding but the Environment Agency says it is unlikely to look again at computer modelling
The Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board along with a number of local farmers feel that the recent flooding could have been prevented if those pumps were working and have been calling on the EA to look again at its computer modelling which was undertaken in 2015.
But their calls are falling on deaf ears.
An EA spokesman said: “The predictions of the modelling for an extreme event reflect the impacts experienced this week in the catchment. The modelling report is clear that there remains a high flood risk whether the pumps operate or not, which was understood by the partnership which included senior staff from Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board, the Environment Agency, Lincolnshire County Council, Boston Borough Council and the NFU when the decision to decommission the Black Sluice Pumping Station was made.
Black Sluice Pumping Station, Boston. Photo: Google Maps
“Computer modelling is expensive and time consuming, and while we have confidence in the outputs we are unlikely to revisit the South Forty Foot Drain modelling at this stage.
“However, models are updated when there are significant changes in catchments, and we are working with Anglian Water in the development of their river modelling, considering possible future changes to the catchment due to the development of the proposed South Lincolnshire Reservoir.”
The reservoir, which has not yet been approved, is not expected to be supplying water until 2039 at the earliest – so this will offer little immediate relief for affected residents and farms.
The EA has explained that heavy rainfall, snowmelt and frozen ground increasing the run off led to ‘record river levels’ on the South Forty Foot.
It says that ‘fen edge’ communities like Billingborough suffered severe flooding as heavy rainfall fell onto snow and frozen ground over Sunday and Monday, January 5 and 6, with high levels of run off with ‘little or no infiltration’.
A spokesman said: “Flooding appears to have come from multiple sources, both from very high river flows and from overland flows over fields and along roads. In some cases, flood water is trapped in low lying parts of communities, unable to pass back into rivers due to historic modifications of these rivers and other flow routes.
“As the high flows moved through the catchment on Monday and Tuesday, January 6 and 7, the South Forty Foot’s Fenland drainage system filled to record levels.”
The agency said that water from the drain is discharged via two gravity sluices at Boston which are closed during high tide – but river levels build up stream during this time.
The spokesman went onto say: “The Black Sluice Pumping Station is approximately 17miles downstream of ‘fen edge’ communities such as Billingborough. The 2015 Black Sluice Catchment Works modelling report showed that the impact of the pumping station went no further than Donington Bridge,12 miles from Boston.
“It also showed that the use of the pumps extended the tide locked period for the SFFD, which delays the opening of the sluice gates and the ability to discharge water into the sea.
“The 2015 modelling report compared flooding scenarios with and without the pumping station, and concluded that there remains a high flood risk whether the pumps operate or not.”
The agency says more than 260,000 properties in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire are at risk from flooding – and warned that this will increase with climate change.
A spokesman said: “We’re working to better protect communities from this risk, with climate change projection built into the design of flood defences to ensure they are fit for the future.
“However, the climate emergency means that we cannot always prevent or build our way out of an incident. That’s why we’re working to help households, businesses and communities be better prepared and more resilient to flooding.
“The Environment Agency is currently delivering the government’s long-term funding programme of flood defences, investing over £1 billion in the current financial year to scale up national resilience through building new and improving existing flood defences.
“In Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, Environment Agency officers have spent more than 100,000 hours working on recovery projects since last winter. In parts of Lincolnshire we have installed bespoke monitoring and set up new flood warning areas to improve resilience.
“We have supported Black Sluice IDB Grant Funding applications for natural flood management (NFM) features across the South Forty Foot Drain uplands and worked with them to deliver an NFM (natural flood management) scheme in the catchment above the village of Swaton.
“This work has helped to reduce the impacts of flooding despite the record rainfall and flows experienced here in the last 18 months.”
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