Our sampling teams have been busy again in spite of the heavy rain and the cold on Monday 6th January. Here are the highlights:-
E.coli - with the River Deben in flood after heavy rain during the weekend of 4th and 5th January, there were much higher levels of bacterial pollution than in recent months across almost all sampling locations.
Water levels around Wickham Market, Easton, Kettleburgh and Debenham overtopped the banks, flooding fields and washing bacterial matter into the river. So, for example, at Glavering Bridge, about a mile above Wickham Market, E.coli was 27 colonies per 1ml in January compared to 9 in December; at Kettleburgh E.coli was 25 colonies per 1ml compared to a mere 2 in December.
Phosphates - pollution from excess phosphates was impacted less by the flood concentrations coming from Anglian Water STW’s equipped with phosphate stripping technology in 2024.
However, at the Rendlesham outfall phosphate levels spiked at 5.64 mg/ litre. Campaigners and local landowners are alarmed that Anglian Water scrapped their plans to invest last year and instead have been allowed an extension to mid-2027 by the Environment Agency.
Nitrates - this month we are publishing the first results from our studies on nitrate pollution. Nitrates play an important, but lesser role, alongside phosphates in driving weed and algal growth, leading to eutrophication with resulting oxygen starvation. Farming is a significant contributor as nitrate fertilisers are leached off the land and so boost nitrate levels in our rivers; all the local STWs emit elevated levels of nitrates into the river too.
Our findings show nitrate levels as being well outside the acceptable range in more than 35% of the samples taken during flood conditions. In spite of the volume of water coming down the river, the River Deben from Wickham Market to Kettleburgh, almost all the samples were in the “excessive” range. A similar pattern is shown on the Rivers Lark and Fynn with all samples being borderline or excessive.
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