River Wye: Group gets funding for pollution research

A volunteer group dedicated to cleaning up the River Wye has received almost £10,000 in lottery funding.

Friends of the Upper Wye will use the money to buy testing kits to research the source of river pollution.

The river, which flows through Wales, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, has excessive algae growth often caused by high phosphate levels, the group says.

It hopes the information it plans to gather will "drive change to clean up our rivers".

"Our aim is to get local people to act as guardians of their stretch," said Nicola Cutcher, the group's coordinator.

"The environmental authorities test very rarely, so don't understand where the pollution is coming in."

Local campaigners claim problems are created by run-off from poultry farming in the area, which they link to high phosphate levels. Millions of chickens are being reared in the Wye's catchment.

Ms Cutcher said pollution could also be coming from water treatment plants or septic tanks.

Friends of the Upper Wye received £9,880 from the National Lottery's Together for Our Planet programme and will use the funding to test for phosphate and nitrate content as well as gauging the river's temperature and conductivity.

The research will focus on the upper part of the Wye, covering the river's catchment from its source at Plynlimon, Wales, to its merger with the Lugg at Mordiford, east of Hereford.

Ms Cutcher said the research would be passed on to authorities and MPs to "put pressure on them to clean up the river".

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