The Environment Agency’s water quality monitoring programme has come under fire obtained by Unearthed shows the number of samples as data and sampling points has fallen by nearly 50% since 2013. The steep decline has raised serious concerns over the state of England’s environmental regulation as it prepares for a dramatic change in the legal and regulatory regime after Brexit, with green groups calling for ring-fenced funding for “essential monitoring work.” 2013 the Agency took water quality samples at 10,797 sites and while that number gradually tapered off over the ensuing years, it dropped to just 5,796 sampling points in 2018 — nearly 40% less than the year before. During the same period (13-18), the Agency saw the number of water quality samples fall by 45% – from 160,000 to 87,000 – due to a change in approach which the EA described as “greater targeting in an increasingly risk-based manner.” The latest figures, some obtained by freedom of information and some provided by the EA, have seen civil society groups sound the alarm over the quality of England’s rivers and of efforts to bring them up to standard.

Click here to read more