Levels of pollutants in the UK's rivers are tested by random sampling, a method that experts say is decades out of date and not thorough enough to tackle the issues facing the waterways
, which can deplete water oxygen levels, block sunlight and release harmful toxins.
While Johnes looked at total phosphorus, the UK’s regulatory bodies don’t routinely monitor for this in rivers, despite the government wanting to. The EA, for example, only monitors rivers for reactive phosphorus, a soluble form, which a spokesperson says is the type most readily taken up by plants and algae. But Johnes says non-dissolved phosphorus that runs off from farms makes up two-thirds of the pollutant in UK rivers.
According to Johnes and Lloyd, the solution to the river-monitoring uncertainties is to introduce more-intensive water quality checks and to be more targeted with when samples are collected. “If you want to find out how agriculture is affecting a river, then you need to collect samples after rainfall,” says Lloyd. “If you want to find out how sewage is affecting a river, then you need to collect samples near a sewage overflow after rainfall,” he says.
The recent uproar around sewage dumping in UK rivers, a problem that has probably been around for years before becoming a popular issue, is a good example of how inadequate water quality monitoring has let the public down, says Lloyd.
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