Court hears that River Wye is at risk of ecological collapse

Experts says agricultural pollution is “widespread” in English rivers, causing pollutants in waterbodies and the development of antibiotic resistance in environmental bacteria

The River Wye is at risk of ecological collapse according to River Action and the Environment Agency (EA), and DEFRA should be held accountable. 

In a landmark Judicial Review, River Action argues the EA acted unlawfully by not enforcing important environmental regulations and failed to protect the Special Area of Conservation of the River Wye from agricultural pollution.

“The agonising death of the River Wye has unfolded in recent years like a car crash in slow motion,” said Charles Watson, Chair and Founder of River Action. “This magnificent watercourse, so often voted our country’s most loved river, has in recent years been assaulted by a deluge of pollution from intensive agriculture.”

Watson blames the “recent exponential growth” of intensive poultry production within the vicinity, with as many as 24 million birds being reared at any one time. He says “thousands of tons of excrement” is discarded across the fields of the Wye Valley, with the “industrial-scale manure dumping” causing the land to become saturated with phosphorous.

“…nutrients such as nitrates, and chemicals including pesticides and animal medicines, are regularly getting into rivers and disturbing the ecosystem's delicate balance.” 

Tessa Wardley, Director of Communications and Advocacy at The Rivers Trust says, "Poor management of nutrients, livestock, soil and chemicals, as well as unsatisfactory farm and drainage infrastructure means nutrients such as nitrates, and chemicals including pesticides and animal medicines, are regularly getting into rivers and disturbing the ecosystem's delicate balance.” 

Paul Kay, Professor of Water Science at the University of Leeds says agricultural pollution is “very widespread; there probably isn't a river catchment in the whole of England where water quality isn't seriously impacted by it.” He added that it leads to the presence of a range of pollutants in waterbodies causing direct toxic impacts on aquatic life and the development of antibiotic resistance in environmental bacteria.

River Action argues that proper enforcement of the law to prevent nutrient oversaturation could have avoided the “horrendous” pollution. It also claims that lobbying by the National Farmers Union (NFU) caused DEFRA to instruct the EA to “ignore enforcing this critical protection – effectively giving the intensive poultry industry carte blanche to dump the manure they produce across the Wye Valley.”  

But Tom Bradshaw, Deputy President, NFU said the organisation recognised the need to protect the environment. He added, “we also believe it is important that legislation is interpreted and applied correctly and proportionately by the Environment Agency and DEFRA. We hope our intervention…will bring about much-needed clarity on how the Farming Rules for Water should be interpreted.”

A DEFRA spokesperson said: “We have set highly ambitious legally binding targets to reduce water pollution from agriculture. We are committed to working with farmers to deliver improvements.”

An EA spokesperson added that since 2021 it has performed more than 7,000 farm inspections and required farmers to carry out over 11,400 improvement actions, including around the River Wye. Actions range from improving slurry storage to better management of nutrients. “Anyone caught breaching environmental laws faces enforcement action, up to and including prosecution.”

There will be a judgement at a future date.

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