In December 2020, a stretch of the River Wharfe at Cromwheel, Ilkley, in Yorkshire was designated a bathing water by Defra,the first section of a river in the country to become a bathing water. Yorkshire’s Bathing Waters lead Claire Campbell …
Citizen science initiatives provide invaluable data about our water environment and complement our own monitoring and assessment work, enabling a greater understanding of the issues we face and how together we can take action going forward. John Findlay, who works in the East Anglia analysis and reporting team at the EA, writes here about his role and the data his team is collecting.
Understanding the environment is one of the Environment Agency’s main areas of expertise. Taking samples and analysing them in the lab provides the unequivocal evidence we need to identify where the problems are and where we need to secure investment to make improvements.
Chloe Hayes, Environment Monitoring Officer in the Environment Agency’s East Midlands area, explains how teams are working together to improve water quality in the River Ryton in Worksop, Nottinghamshire.
The problems facing water are complex, with multiple sources of pollution affecting water quality. One of the lesser-known areas of the Environment Agency’s work is cleaning up pollution from abandoned metal mines.
Mining played a major part in Britain’s rich industrial history, but this also left thousands of abandoned mines scattered across our landscape. Almost all these mines had closed by the early 1900s but they are still releasing harmful metals including lead, cadmium and copper. This is one of the top 10 issues for water quality in England as it harms fish and river insects. Abandoned mines are the largest source of metals to British rivers and seas (click here for more information). Pollution is localised to about 1,500km of rivers - mainly in the North East, Cumbria, Yorkshire & Cornwall.
On 18 November 2021, the Environment Agency and Ofwat announced separate major investigations into possible unauthorised discharges at thousands of wastewater treatment works.
Emma Billings provides an insight into the Environment Agency farm inspections taking place in Lincolnshire
There has been widespread media coverage of the Environment Agency’s annual report on the environmental performance of England’s nine water and sewerage companies. The report – covered by the Guardian, Evening Standard, Times, BBC, Independent, Telegraph and Financial Times - …
Confusing algae for sewage is an easy mistake to make, but there are some tips to telling the difference.
Event Duration Monitoring data for 2021 shows that water and sewerage companies have a long way to go to reduce the use of storm overflows.
