Water Quality Testing Results

The Water Quality Monitoring Network (WQMN) aims to harness the power of angling clubs and anglers to understand the quality of water across England and to establish a solid foundation of data.

This solid foundation of data will be used to better understand the factors affecting water quality, aid in the development of effective solutions to improve water quality, and will provide the Angling Trust with evidence to support its campaigning. For more information, please see https://anglingtrust.net/2022/05/11/water-quality-monitoring-network-launch/

How to interpret the results:

Electrical Conductivity - Significantly elevated electrical conductivity can indicate that pollution has entered the water. A measure of electrical conductivity cannot tell you what the pollutant is, but it can help identify that there is a problem. Any human activity that adds inorganic, charged chemicals to a river/lake will alter the electrical conductivity.

Phosphate - Standards for phosphorus in UK rivers were introduced under the water framework directive (WFD) in 2009 and were updated in 2015. The standards are site specific and depend upon the altitude and alkalinity of the site. The standards for good ecological status (close to natural) in Rivers are broadly in the range of 0.077 - 0.306ppm of Orthophosphate (PO43), as annual means.

Nitrate - There are no ecological status standards for Nitrogen in Rivers. The Environment Agency’s approach is to focus on Phosphate as the main cause of river eutrophication and the nutrient they are most able to reduce to levels that will improve the ecology. There is a standard for Lakes and Reservoirs, which is 0.75 - 1.5 mg/l (ppm). Natural levels of Nitrate in freshwater are typically low, generally well below 5ppm.