Britain’s filthiest rivers

Calder tops dirty list as sewage spills total 4.5m hours

ENGLAND’S 20 dirtiest rivers were revealed yesterday as campaigners called for a new Blue Flag status to protect them from pollution.

Sewage was dumped into the country’s rivers and seas for a shocking 4.5 million hours last year – with 559,546 spills in total.

This is equivalent to an average of more than 1,500 sewage dumps every day.

Four of the top-ten worst rivers in the country for dumping were in Yorkshire, analysis of Environment Agency data by the Liberal Democrats found. They include the River Calder, which topped the list with nearly 4,200 spills amounting to almost 33,000 hours of sewage dumping.

It was followed by the River Avon where Wessex Water dumped 32,500 hours worth of sewage, then the River Severn which experienced more than 30,000 hours of discharging by Severn Trent Water.

Under proposals by the Liberal Democrats rivers could be awarded special status to protect them from pollution.

This would give swimmers the knowledge that certain environmental standards were being met. Water companies that continued to dump sewage into Blue Flag rivers would face punitive fines.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: ‘ England’s treasured rivers risk being ruined by shocking levels of raw sewage dumping, with a catastrophic impact for local communities and wildlife.

‘It is an environmental scandal and Conservative ministers are letting water companies get away with it.

‘The public are rightly furious that their favourite local rivers are being spoiled, while water company bosses line their pockets with big bonuses. We urgently need a new Blue Flag status to protect our rivers, along with punitive fines for water companies that continue to pump their filthy sewage into them.’

Last week, rowers in the Oxford and Cambridge boat race were warned to avoid ingesting Thames water due to high levels of E.coli bacteria.