ITV News reports councillors in the Cotswolds have reacted angrily after yet more raw sewage was pumped into local rivers.
Tag Archives: freshwater
Blame yourselves for river pollution, Environment Agency leader to tell public
The Telegraph reports criticism should be aimed at polluters who flush wet wipes down the lavatory and pour cooking oil in the sink, Sir James Bevan to say
No English river is free from pollution – Parliament report
BBC News and Sky News report raw sewage, microplastics and slurry are coursing through all of England’s rivers, putting health and nature at risk, a parliamentary report concludes. Agriculture and water companies are the biggest contributors to this “chemical cocktail”, the Environmental Audit Committee warns. Car tyre particles, oils and wet wipes are also clogging waterways.
Specieswatch: after escaping a trap, killer shrimp is here to stay
The Guardian reports efforts to contain the non-native invader failed and it has spread all over England and Wales’s waterways.
Environment Agency launches major investigation into sewage
The Guardian reports water companies are at the centre of a major investigation by the financial and environmental watchdogs after they admitted they may have illegally released untreated sewage into rivers and waterways.
The Environment Agency and Ofwat said they had begun an investigation into sewage treatment works, after new checks led to the admission from the water companies.
This investigation will involve more than 2,000 sewage treatment works, nearly a third of the total number in England and Wales, with any company caught breaching their legal permits liable to enforcement action, including fines or prosecutions.
New strategy launched to protect chalk streams
WiredGov reports the Environment Agency recently (15 October 2021) welcomed a new chalk stream strategy to protect ‘England’s rainforests’
The Catchment Based Approach’s Chalk Stream Restoration Group brings together organisations with an interest in chalk stream management, recognising that protection of chalk streams requires everyone to play their part.
England’s rivers, lakes and streams ‘among worst in Europe’ amid concern over sewage and farm pollution
The Independent reports every freshwater body in England currently fails chemical standards and only 16 per cent are classed as being “in good ecological health”, compared to 53 per cent on average across the EU, according to the Wildlife and Countryside Link, the largest environment and wildlife coalition in England, made up of 61 organisations. The report warns that the climate crisis is worsening conditions for England’s “already beleaguered waters”.
Norfolk’s rediscovered ‘ghost ponds’ offer up trove of long-lost plants
The Guardian reports rewilding projects reveal rare species preserved in buried ancient wetlands. Botanists believe that this will lead to new plant discoveries; seeds can survive for centuries under layers of leaves and mud so once they are given water and exposed to sunlight the plants will grow.
Already, six plants of the endangered wetland flower grass-poly have been found at the edge of an old cattle-watering pond on the Heydon estate in north Norfolk. The species had not been seen in the county since the early 1900s.
Laws of nature: could UK rivers be given the same rights as people?
The Guardian reports the River Frome murmurs and babbles through the woods and fields of north Somerset. It is popular with anglers and wild swimmers but is often polluted with a cocktail of agricultural runoff, leading to frequent complaints from the public.
In 2018, Frome Town Council tried to pass a bylaw giving part of the river and the adjacent Rodden meadow the status of a person in law. This would establish their right to exist, flourish and thrive, and for the river to flow freely and have a natural water cycle, as well as ensuring timely and effective restoration if they were damaged.
The council and a local charity, Friends of the River Frome, were to be made joint guardians of the river and meadow, tasked with balancing their interests with the health and safety of local people.
Britain’s rivers are suffocating to death
The Guardian reports water that should be crystal clear has become a green-brown slop of microscopic algae because of industrial farm waste. Opinion piece by George Monbiot.