THE Rivers Trust is calling for concerned residents to take action this September in their Big River Watch. 

The charity, based in Stoke Climsland, is encouraging participants to safely take to the riverbank between September 6 and 12 to monitor what they see, and smell.

It is looking for information on wildlife, plants, the speed of the river and any pollution spotted.

More than 130 people participated in the Spring Big River Watch across the trust’s patch of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and west Dorset.

Communications Manager at Westcountry Rivers Trust, Josie Purcell said: “This Big River Watch we'd love to see more people taking part this time to feed in even more information as a part of this national citizen science opportunity.

“To take part, download the app from https://theriverstrust.org/take-action/the-big-river-watch, and spend 15 minutes observing your river and feed back what you see into the watch survey.”

Data entered can be viewed in real time at https://theriverstrust.org/big-river-watch-data-dashboard, building a picture of what people are reporting from around the patch.

Dedicated volunteer citizen scientists also regularly monitor stretches of water assigned to them all year round. 

Their information fed into the Rivers Trust State of our Rivers report from 2024 which states that our rivers are not healthy – far from it, and that the situation hasn’t improved from the last report in 2021. More data is needed, says the trust to truly understand the scale of the problems.

Saltash resident Stephen Jensen keeps a close eye on the sewage from his home which has views of the river Tamar.

He uses The Rivers Trust sewage map which has been updated with the 2023 annual summary data for sewage spills in England.

He said: “As a resident of Saltash I have concerns about the quality of water in the Tamar as there are a number of CSOs (Combined Sewage Overflows) that discharge into the river locally, as well as the sewage treatment plants at Ernesettle and Camels Head in Plymouth.

“I know too of local sewage flooding in Old Ferry Road and at the entrance to Salt Mill. 

“I am concerned that new housing developments in the area will add to these discharges into the river and sewage overflows.”

He goes on to explain that the law on CSOs is clear; discharges from combined sewage overflows are only allowed in exceptional circumstances, not just at times of heavy rain. 

The regulator should enforce the law and fine water companies that break the law, he adds. 

Stephen said: “It is shocking that there are so many sites on the Tamar discharging into the river for thousands of hours with so many CSOs in the Saltash area, a couple very close to me. 

“These discharges should be in exceptional circumstances only but in view of the recorded hours of these discharges these are frequent discharges, not exceptional.

“The water companies have let us, the consumer, down; our rivers and waterways are being polluted by the water companies.”  

Fellow resident on Old Ferry Road is Nick Theis. His driveway has flooded twice with overflow sewage that has backed up in the infrastructure around his house. He blames South West Water but he says, they have slopey shoulders and should be finding a way to sort the issue rather than paying their shareholders and directors. 

He said: “The infrastructure around here is totally neglected and outdated. It just can’t cope with the sheer volumes. The pipes are too small, the holding tanks which date back to the war, get overwhelmed. And so it all ends up in the Tamar.” 

He’s incredulous at the statistics which cover the number of days that South West Water is pumping sewage into the Tamar. That information is available on their website; the amount they are pumping out isn’t. 

“They are pumping out sewage 90 days out of 365. That’s obscene. And they are not prepared to publish how much they are pumping out on their website”, he adds.

South West Water (SWW) has been fined £2.15m for illegally dumping sewage into rivers and the sea in Devon and Cornwall between July 2016 and August 2020. A further action was brought against the company earlier this year where it faced 30 charges brought by the Environment Agency (EA) relating to many hundreds of alleged illegal water discharges and breaches of environmental permits. 

The EA's report showed that South West Water has had one of the worst records in the country for pollution incidents every year for the past 13 years.

Nick Theis concludes: “I’ve always trusted South West Water but behind our backs this has been going on for years.”

To take part in the Big River Watch go to: https://theriverstrust.org/take-action/the-big-river-watch. Volunteer Citizen Scientist opportunities can be viewed here: https://wrt.org.uk/westcountry-csi/.