Rivers are unlikely to be granted the protections of bathing water status under the government’s changes to the system, campaigners have said.
River activists have reacted with fury as details of the reforms were revealed on Wednesday.
In an unexpected move, ministers are imposing a feasibility test on any waterway where a community is seeking a bathing water designation. If water bodies are deemed too polluted to improve to at least “sufficient” water quality they will not be given a designation.
River campaigners have said the restriction is very likely to exclude river sites from being granted bathing water status. No single stretch of river in England is in good overall health and the rivers that have bathing water status at the moment all record poor water quality, as a result of sewage and agricultural pollution, which will take time and investment by water companies to improve.
The EU-derived bathing water regulations are being used by campaigners as a driver to clean up toxic rivers, which suffer from sewage pollution and agricultural runoff.
When a waterway gets the status it is subjected to a much tougher testing regime by the Environment Agency to determine the level of faecal pollution at the site. Waterways are given the status: poor, sufficient, good or excellent.
Becky Malby of the Ilkley Clean River Group, who was behind the campaign to make part of the River Wharfe the first river to be designated as a bathing water area, said: “We are shocked at the move to only designate waters that have the potential to meet sufficient water quality. Bathing status is awarded where people use rivers to protect them. This new restriction means that at many rivers in England where people paddle, play and swim there will be no information on water quality, and those rivers will not have to comply with bathing status requirement to reduce raw sewage pollution to 10 episodes a year.”
When the Wharfe received the designation in 2020, it was classed as being poor quality, she said. It has taken five years and a multimillion pound investment from Yorkshire Water to get to the stage where the river is expected be given sufficient or good status in the years to come.
Chris Coode, the chief executive of environmental charity Thames21, said other government changes to the rules such as testing bathing water sites all year round rather than just in the summer were a step in the right direction. But he joined Malby’s criticism of the new feasibility test.
“This change would significantly reduce the chances of inland river sites achieving designation, diverting monitoring and investments to already clean sites and preventing essential improvements needed to make our rivers safe for swimming, paddling and playing,” he said.
Surfers Against Sewage also attacked the new feasibility test. Dani Jordan, the director of campaigns and communities, said: “The proposed ‘feasibility test’ that deems some areas as too polluted to protect will feel like a snub to communities who are simply asking the government for help in tackling the pollution of their local bathing spots so that they can enjoy them safely.”
A government source said the changes were designed to ensure that “poor” sites were only fully designated where it was feasible and proportionate to improve the water quality to “sufficient” standards. The source said public health needed to be protected.
Under the changes, which cover England and Wales, the definition of “bathers” will be expanded to include participants in watersports other than swimming, such as paddle boarders and surfers, the bathing water season will be extended to the whole year from its current term of May to September and multiple testing points will be created at the bathing water sites.
Emma Hardy, the water minister, said: “Bathing water sites are the pride of local communities across the country. But safety and cleanliness is paramount, and we must go further and faster to open up our waterways for families to enjoy.”
Applications for bathing water status, which have been on hold during consultation over the changes, will reopen in May.
