Enhanced by citizen science data, the Environment Agency is using water quality monitoring activity to prioritise how and where to tackle phosphate pollution on the River Wye.

EA offices montor river water quality at a sonde site on the River Wye 

The EA is working collaboratively with other partners to deliver a Citizen Science monitoring programme. The additional resource is collecting water quality data throughout the Wye catchment to help identify and prioritise where measures can be targeted to reduce inputs of pollution.

The Agency said:

“This work complements our statutory monitoring and will be a valuable source of intelligence moving forward.”

The Wye catchment is an iconic location and hugely important for biodiversity, principally due to the wide range of rare river wildlife. Over 60% of the phosphate load in the catchment is from diffuse agricultural pollution from livestock manure and nutrients washing into the river during heavy rain.

A range of partners through the Wye Nutrient Management Board, including the Environment Agency, Natural England and Natural Resources Wales, are working collaboratively to address concerns about phosphate levels in the catchment and drive forward nature recovery.

Based on the latest water quality monitoring report, which has been enhanced by new data obtained by an ongoing citizen science monitoring programme, the Environment Agency has made a series of recommendations on where actions are most needed and the locations across the catchment where those actions can have the most impact.

This includes a recommendation that partners take a catchment-based approach targeting 5 upstream areas of the river that have high phosphate levels relative to the wider catchment.

Evidence also indicates that efforts to increase shade by tree planting and better management of riparian trees could help mitigate high temperatures. The Environment Agency is developing an algal bloom early warning system to respond to excessive temperatures, with advice for anglers and river users.

Grace Wight, Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency, said:

“The inclusion of citizen science data in our latest monitoring report is a fantastic step in combining more data sources and is already helping identify where measures can be targeted to reduce the inputs of pollution to the river.

“The scale and complexity of the challenges in the catchment means solutions will take time and must be founded on a strong evidence base.”

The Environment Agency is continuing to scale up its monitoring operation to inform next steps on the Wye.

£100,000 has been secured for the Wye and Lugg catchments from a national fund that supports agricultural regulation. The additional funds will supply monitoring equipment that will capture real-time, high-resolution data over the catchments. The equipment comprises of 10 sondes and 6 auto-samplers that will be positioned across the rivers Wye, Lugg and Arrow.

Enhanced monitoring will support the work of Natural England’s Catchment Sensitive Farming team, which provides advice and guidance to farmers to reduce air and water pollution. This work area has benefitted from increased resource to enable more farmers to access advice and support.

The Environment Agency has also increased farm visits in the catchment, focusing on high-risk locations and previously non-compliant businesses. Increased monitoring will help target regulatory work even further, working with farmers to support environmentally friendly farming that doesn’t damage water quality.

In July 2021, Defra announced it would double funding for farmers to tackle water pollution via the Catchment Sensitive Farming partnership between Defra, Natural England and the Environment Agency. In recent years it has reduced the number of serious water pollution incidents by almost a fifth.

Further work is also underway to tackle phosphate pollution from wastewater treatment in the River Wye through catchment partnerships. The Nutrient Management Board, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water and the Storm Overflows Taskforce will seek to make further improvements in this space.

The latest water quality monitoring report, along with analysis, activities and plans to improve water quality in the Wye and Lugg river catchments, can be found on the Environment Agency’s recently launched Wye Water Monitoring webpage.

Partners and stakeholders will continue to be updated via the new website and ongoing engagement work in order to work together to tackle pollution and ensure the future health of the river,

The Environment Agency said that citizen science has the potential to help meet some of the challenging demands of environmental monitoring at national scale.