"Sean Mcdonald" wrote in message
...

"Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote in message
.. .

Alan, I have a vague memory, presumably from 1997, of the Ver
drying up all the way down to St Albans, ruining the watercress
beds. Is that right, or is it an older memory intruding?


Not too sure about '97 but certainly '95 and '90 however water
abstraction
at Friars Wash was much higher then. Incidently I seem to remember that
the
lower levels of abstraction were due to the diversion of water from the
Lea
catchment around Luton. I could be wrong on this but if it were the case
it
would smack of robbing Peter to pay Paul given the drying out of the Lea.

Ah, now things are beginning to fall into place. That would explain a lot.
It can be argued that it's no great loss as far as Luton is concerned. Such
a
large part of the town was built in the catchment in the last 100 years or
so,
with so many houses in the flood-plain, but during the period when
artesian abstraction was at its highest, so I guess there were few concerns
about flooding. After 2000-01 it was clear that hundreds of houses,
dozens of businesses, parts of the A6 and the inner ring road, were all at
risk from flooding resulting from a combination of a rising water table and
an extremely 'flashy' catchment. The one big loser in all this is the big
lake in the rather attractive Wardown Park which has comprised extensive
mudflats since August.

Philip Eden