Water warriors rise against a tide of pollution newS

Friday April 19th 2024 www.pembrokeshire-herald.co.uk For up to date news please check our social network channels

IN town after town crowded meetings challenge what is happening to our loved rivers and beaches. Town halls are packed with residents angry and perplexed that regulations are failing as water life declines, grey foam grows, and bathers report a litany of water borne ailments.

On the positive side, the key players come to discuss with residents; Dwr Cyrmu (Welsh Water), NRW (Natural Resources Wales), ecologists, sometimes farmers, give their evenings to share their deepening concern, respond to public challenges, commit to solutions. But are they enough? The public has had to self educate to get to grips with the causes so we can distinguish real solutions from soft soap.

Ric Cooper, a water sports enthusiast with a science background moved to Hook for a peaceful retirement. What he and neighbours saw happening to the serene river outside their windows roused them to action.

They founded the Cleddau Project while Ffynnone North Pembs Resilience instigated the Teifi project and there are groups forming in St.Dogmaels, Newport and wherever our water ways are dying. Residents have to dive deep into the science to fish out the answers. Ric Cooper explains:

“We must separate the three main categories of pollution

First the pathogens (ie bugs/ EColi) which come from untreated human waste. Most sewage treatment works have UV (ultra violet ) light treatment to kill these bugs before the effluent is discharged into our river. So it’s the CSOs ( Combined Storm Outflows) that are the culprit. When they were put in ten years or more ago we were all told they would only be used in rare heavy rain events, maybe twice a year. In reality they are used hundreds of times a year and in 2023 twice as often as in 2022. The rain did not double in one year!

Second nutrient pollution – high nitrates and phosphates which mostly come from agriculture. They disprupt aquatic life by over feeding algae which bloom and block the light and use up the oxygen so other aquatic plants and animals are starved and suffocated. This is the main pollutant of our rivers and most comes from agriculture. However 30% of the Phosphates is from untreated human sewage, especially from Merlins Bridge works with lacks the technology to remove it. 90% of the Nitrogen is believed to come from agriculture.

Third toxic chemicals eg ammonia which come from landfill, human sewage, industry and agriculture. Others are lead, other metals and detergent residue which are all directly toxic to fish and aquatic life. A recent NRW report indicated that the Cleddau was the most nutrient polluted SAC river in Wales (SAC:special area of conservation) This is out of 9 rivers including the Usk & the Wye which are much more in the public eye.”

We naturally ask who is to blame? The agencies responsible list their challenges, from intensifying agriculture, aging and inappropriate systems. There is climate crazy rainfall, growing populations, the spread of concrete reducing natural drainage, extreme washing habits, sewage blockages form insolubles like nappies, planners bowing to developers who overturn drainage rules and the regulators’ diminishing income. There is also public resistance to rules: When Welsh government tried to impose the NVZ, (nitrate vulnerable zones) restrictions on farmers there was rebellion.

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Inexorably the lense of blame must widen to include us. It is our food system, how we eat and excrete that is the overwhelming source of the pollution.

As well as heartbreak for those in tune with nature there is loss to health and to history:

“I get sick after surfing. I get a tight chest, rashes, gut problems.” Barry says over coffee at one of these crowded meetings.”Its doing my head in. I am a veteran that surfs for my sanity. I had no idea what we were doing in Afghanistan til I came home and it all became clearer. The realisation and flashbacks give me ptsd. Water makes me calm and free, five hours surfing and I was renewed, washed clean, not now its making me ill. I don’t know what to do.”

“Why do tourists come to Pembrokeshire?” asked a tourist, “It’s not for the nightlife! nor the shopping experience. Its for the environment, the purity and freedom of nature. “If tourists had a map with turds drawn on the beaches whenever the sewage is dumped untreated they would run a mile” A surfer against sewage offered to post these maps up.

An old couple recalled the sewin and trout rich rivers, the river banks of happy fishers in the days when 30 cows was a viable farm, and 100 was huge. Their manure was stacked by fork and rotted down to feed the soil, not pollute rivers as sprayed slurry. The old couple were among many locals who have been raising these concerns for years. It was sobering to hear how recently things were so life rich. Our loved land and water are dying but the National Park Authority who might protect it through planning are fixated by the shape of the landscape, not its life.

There is an exciting palette of possible solutions. They need a whole article to explore. We can learn from history, from science, from the wisdom of the hive (informed citizens) and from common sense. We must change our food system, and of course we must invest. Our waters are worth it.