A popular beach has lost its coveted Blue Flag status due to a decline in bathing water quality. Saltburn was the only beach between Whitby and Sunderland to be given the internationally recognised certification in 2022, the BBC reported. However, its bathing water quality, based on Environment Agency samples, has fallen from “excellent” to “good”. […]
New research led by the University of Stirling is to explore how pollution and climate change are impacting freshwater ecosystems for the first time. The study, which has been awarded funding of £2million from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), will investigate how pollutants interact with rivers and ecosystems, and devise a system to monitor and measure pollution. […]
Scientists replicated a 1964 River Thames survey and found that mussel numbers have declined by almost 95%, with one species – the depressed river mussel – completely gone. The detailed study measured the change in size and number of all species of mussel in a stretch of the River Thames near Reading between 1964 and […]
A new survey has revealed Scots’ fears over sewage pollution after untreated human waste was dumped in waterways 10,000 times in a year, a report in the Daily Record states. The research, conducted by Scottish Environment LINK, found litter pollution also high up the list of concerns. A total of 91 per cent of people polled said […]
97.1% of bathing waters in England have passed water quality standards following testing at over 400 designated sites carried out by the Environment Agency (EA). The results show that for the 2022 bathing season, 72.1% of beaches and inland waters met the ‘Excellent’ standard, the highest since new stringent standards were introduced in 2015. 92.8% of […]
Foreword from the SAS report, which was reported in last week’s news “Our ocean is an unrivalled life force on our planet, a force which is imperative to every living creature on earth. As humans our connection with and to the ocean goes back millennia. It gives us the air we breathe, it controls our […]
UK rivers near livestock farms are awash with superbugs and antibiotic residues, including in the idyllic River Wye, research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found. Testing commissioned with World Animal Protection and the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics has found evidence of drug resistance in waterways near poultry and pig farms and in […]
The Environment Agency’s ‘Regulating for people, the environment and growth, 2021’ report has been published and highlights the organisation’s approach to regulation and the work it is doing to ensure regulation meets their ambition to create better places. In the Foreword by the Chief Executive of the Agency, the stark message was that in 2021, […]