A stretch of Wolvercote Mill Stream, in Port Meadow, two miles outside Oxford, was designated as an official swimming area in April following a campaign by local people. Bathing water sites must be tested from May to September by the Environment Agency and grassroots groups across the country are pushing for their rivers to become bathing water sites to force water companies to stop dumping raw sewage into rivers. Waters are given a classification of excellent, good, adequate or poor, based on the tests. But data from the first swim season indicates that E coli and intestinal enterococci are present at levels higher than what is safe for swimming. In the case of intestinal enterococci, the levels were more than twice the recommended amount. The results from the EA, published on Tuesday, mean the swimming area is likely to receive a poor classification when it is given official status later this year. Claire Robertson, head of the Oxford Rivers Project at Thames21, said: “We are disappointed, but not surprised, by these results at Wolvercote, given that Thames Water released raw sewage into the rivers around Oxford for 5,600 hours in 2021 and taking considering our results from citizen science trials last year.” He said there were no clear plans from the water company to upgrade the treatment works at Cassington or Stanton Harcourt. Robertson said the bathing water site only had four more years to achieve an ‘adequate’ or higher rating at Wolvercote or it could be declassified. Thames Water says it plans to halve raw sewage spills by 2030. But Robertson said: “This is not fast enough for the swimmers and paddlers at Wolvercote, many of them families with young children, nor for the wildlife life and plants that call this part of the Thames their home. We need action now. “We look forward to hearing where they plan to make upgrades so we can swim safely at Wolvercote and how the Environment Agency can support and enforce these improvements.” Tim Harris, a fellow at the Rivers Trust who led a study of popular Thames bathing areas in 2021, said: “Overall the biggest contributor to bacterial levels at this site is raw and treated sewage from Thames Water’s assets. It is therefore very surprising that there are still no plans to upgrade the sewage treatment works and drainage network in the local area which affects the swimming area.’ The campaign to make Port Meadow a swimming venue has been backed by the council and MP Layla Moran. Under the government’s storm overflow reduction plan, water companies must improve all overflows that discharge raw sewage into or near every designated bathing water by 2035. But the plan has been criticized by environmentalists as too late and is being challenged in court . In the House of Lords on Monday, Greens’ Jenny Jones pressed the government because water companies have yet to draw up plans to deal with raw sewage, as required by the government’s plan. “The water companies already had all the money they needed for infrastructure improvements and they didn’t use it for that, they gave it in dividends to their shareholders,” he said. “So I might suggest [Lord Benyon] order Ofwat to ensure no dividends are paid until further notice … and big bonuses to senior executives, until this problem is resolved and water companies stop pumping sewage into our chalk streams, rivers and beaches.” Lord Benyon, the environment secretary, said there are very strict new conditions being set by the water regulator, Ofwat, on how water companies reward senior staff and shareholders. He said there is an absolute imperative for the regulator and the government to massively reduce the impact of storm surges. He said Ofwat had written to water companies to make clear their plans so far lacked ambition and sufficient evidence to support the positions they had taken. He added that water companies had an additional two months to come up with better plans. Richard Aylard, director of sustainability at Thames Water, said: “We are committed to reducing the annual length of sewage discharges into rivers by 50% in the Thames Valley by 2030 and have planned significant investment in our local sewerage network to reduce the need for untreated discharges, including a major expansion at the Witney Wastewater Treatment Works in Oxfordshire. “Following a successful trial in the Oxford area, we are completing the provision of live alerts from all 468 permitted sites across our area by the end of 2022. We are clear that it is completely unacceptable for raw sewage to enter rivers, permitted or not . Stopping emissions completely will take time and sustained investment. However, every step we take on this journey is a move in the right direction.”
