Drought Measures

Drought Orders & Permits

We haven’t submitted any drought order or permit applications at this current time.

However, the Environment Agency have applied for a drought order to Defra for our Black Moss reservoirs (near Barley in Pendle, Lancashire) to reduce the compensation flow release to Black Moss Water (the river downstream) from 2.682 Ml/d to 1.341 Ml/d. Defra granted the Black Moss drought order on the 17 October 2022 and it came in to force on the 18 October 2022. It ceases to have effect on the 17 April 2023. However following rainfall, storage in the reservoirs has improved and the reduced compensation flow (allowed by the drought order) has not yet been implemented.