Stakeholders collaborate on water quality monitoring strategy

(by Karma Loveday)

River health stakeholders have collaborated on a plan of action to deliver effective river monitoring under Section 82 of the Environment Act, which requires water companies to monitor water quality upstream and downstream of treated effluent outflow points, by measuring pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, ammonia, temperature, and conductivity.

The Testing the Waters Consortium's first face-to-face event brought together representatives from major manufacturers — including Proteus Instruments, Xylem, In-Situ, Clearwater Sensors and Seneye — with the Environmental Farmers Group, water industry specialists, regulators and citizen scientists.

Key outcomes of the meeting included:

• Open-source data standards were identified as essential to ensure monitoring data is accessible, trustworthy and useful across the entire sector.

• Phosphate monitoring was identified as critical next step, filling a significant gap in current Section 82 requirements.

• There was agreement that a strategic framework is needed to integrate citizen science with the 7,000+ sensors being deployed under Section 82. 

• There was recognition that building stakeholder trust requires a five to ten year commitment to transparent data sharing. 

The Testing the Waters Consortium was formed at The UK River Summit in July 2025, to collaborate on improving water quality monitoring and river health outcomes.

• The Great UK WaterBlitz, a large scale citizen science project run by Earthwatch Europe, has identified veterinary parasiticide imidacloprid as a primary chemical risk in UK freshwaters. The September 2025 data, the fourth batch of results, also found that 60% of sites tested exhibited elevated levels of nutrient pollution.