Projects

Farming and Water Quality

The River Dart has seen huge improvements in water quality in recent years, principally as a consequence of the sewage treatment improvements carried out by South West Water, driven by the Shellfish Waters Directive. The problem remains that pollution still enters the river from diffuse sources such as run-off from agricultural (and urban) land.

The quality of the river water is monitored regularly by the statutory authorities. However, this monitoring is a rigidly structured regime, dictated by limited resources. DEEM believed that much of the story was being missed by not having a more responsive monitoring protocol. In order to demonstrate the nature of the problem, DEEM, with assistance from Devon Sea Fisheries Committee (DSFC) and South Hams District Council (SHDC), commissioned an undergraduate study in 2001 to address the issues of how significant were rainfall events on water quality, and what the significance of the neighbouring land usage was.

The study demonstrated most clearly that the river's bacteria levels were higher immediately after rainfall, compared to the general background levels. This factor was being missed by the periodic sampling of the regulatory authorities. Different land use practices showed different bacteria levels, in particular woods at the river edges were seen to act as a protective buffer for water quality.