A growing number of citizen scientists are helping to monitor the rivers and streams for pollution.
By Jonathan MorrisClutching test tubes, notepads and wearing wellies, Alice and Olivia and their parents Helen and Erik are on a mission.
Campaigners believe the work could lead to real change in the water quality of British rivers and beaches by raising awareness of problem pollution areas.The Westcountry Rivers Trust trains citizen scientists to take samples legally and safely.Mother Helen said: "I think you've got to be part of trying to fix things for rivers and streams and hold to account the people and companies that are polluting the rivers and making it unsafe for our children to swim on the beaches.
The group is planning to test all the tributaries of the Erme, from Modbury to Ugborough, with the help of landlord John Mildmay-White who allows them access to his land.The rivers can be affected by combined sewer overflows, which are pipes that release untreated sewage into waterways when treatment works are overwhelmed by wet weather.
Downstream from Modbury, Flete Estate landowner John Mildmay-White said the aim of the testing was to start building an understanding of "where do we need to investigate more, which particular stream or brook is changing when it rains and where can we isolate the source of pollution so we can do some more scientific testing".
Nicola Rogers, from WRT, said: "We don't think at the moment that there's enough testing happening to really tell us about the state of our rivers in the West Country, so citizen scientists can help us fill some of those data gaps. South West Water said it had "followed the rapid growth of citizen science in recent years with great interest" and it wanted to "expand their citizen science programmes among local communities".
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