The Oxford Rivers Portal, a website and map to help people understand the health of the Thames and its tributaries in the county, has been launched by environmental charities Rivers Trust and Thames21 and research institute UK Center for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH).
It collects raw sewage spill alerts, water quality measurements by the Environment Agency and citizen scientists, water levels, flood warnings, bacteria measurements at bathing sites and sewage treatment rates in both designated bathing waters on a single map. Oxfordshire, Port. Oxford Meadow and Wallingford Beach.
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Users can zoom in and click on any of the more than 2,000 locations to see real-time information or data from the past three years.
Previously, these different data sources were available on different websites and were difficult to access.
Claire Robertson, head of the Oxford Rivers project at Thames21, said: “Water quality and river health must improve. The main sources of pollution are agriculture and the water industry, plus the growing threat of plastics and perpetual chemicals.
“With more and more people looking to England’s rivers for recreation, we all need to up our game.
“We hope this portal will make it easier for people to decide whether they want to swim or take out a canoe or paddleboard on a given day.
“Swimming in a river is so good for you if you do it safely – don’t enter water you can’t swim against, don’t jump into water where you don’t know what’s underneath, and wash your hands after swimming.”
Dr. Virginie Keller, an environmental modeller at UKCEH, added: “River pollution is now a major concern for many people, but it is difficult to get clear and up-to-date information about local water quality and conditions.
“Our portal is a ‘one stop shop’ that collects a range of data in an accessible way.”
The development of the Oxford Rivers Portal is part of the European GOVAQUA project, which aims to accelerate the transition to sustainable and equitable water use through better water management. It is funded by the European Union and UK Research and Innovation.
The team behind the portal say the data and information will enable users to gather evidence to understand the state of their local waterways, and stimulate discussions between the public, regulators and water companies about policies and management related to rivers and streams.
As designated swimming areas, Oxford’s Port Meadow and Wallingford Beach are tested weekly for potentially harmful bacteria by the Environment Agency from mid-May to the end of September.
Except for one day in Wallingford, all bacteria readings at those two locations this season have been below concern levels.
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An analysis of the 2023 data found that five of the seven local wastewater treatment plants for which data was provided showed signs of illegal “early” raw sewage discharges.
Wastewater treatment plants must reach a minimum flow level before they can legally discharge raw sewage into rivers and streams through storm spillways to prevent it from backing up in the system.
The works are intended to operate at this minimum level for one to four hours before the raw sewage is allowed to discharge.
However, in 183 cases the treatment plants did not reach this minimum flow in the last 24 hours before the raw sewage was discharged.
The Oxford WWTPs had 77 separate “first releases” totaling 1,839 hours, the Appleford plants had 89 releases totaling 1,692 hours, and the Stanton Harcourt plants had seven first releases totaling 1,322 hours.
