Just how much bacteria is in Oxford’s rivers?

We’re pleased and proud to be able to finally publish the results of 12 months of river water quality sampling and testing throughout 2021. It can be read here. The study sampled 18 river locations in and around Oxford, including 8 spots popular with swimming, canoeing, punting and rowing, for E Coli and Enterococci. These

#EndSewagePollution March 2022 – taking a breath

  Swimmers at Wolvercote Bathing Place, March 2022. Image credit : Jo Sandelson Hello everyone, I’ve been taking a bit of a breather whilst we wait for the decision on bathing water status and for our final report on testing to go through the Rivers Trust peer review process. It’s been wonderful to see the

#endsewagepollution mid-Thames update January 2022

Image credit : Martyn Cattermole-Family Well, the year has started off with a bang, or rather with a stink, as sewage treatment works at Witney spilled for 11 days continuously. The appalling state of our rivers, due to raw sewage pollution and a cocktail of other chemicals has been in the news almost every day

Report: Sewage treatment works upstream of Port Meadow under investigation

REPORT PRESS RELEASE Research by the Oxford Rivers Project in 2021 has lead to Cassington sewage treatment works, the closest treatment works upstream of river swimming spot Port Meadow, being referred to the Environment Agency for investigations. Researchers for the project found that, in 2021, Cassington sewage treatment works had spilled on occasions when rainfall

October update: #EndSewagePollution – it’s all kicking off!

 Sewage has made the headlines repeatedly in recent days – what on earth is going on and what can I do about it? Hi everyone, What a couple of weeks it’s been! 1. Bathing water application submitted2. Write to your MP re: the Environment Bill (especially if you have a Conservative MP)3. Write to Layla

Are Oxford’s rivers fit to swim in? The results are in!

Yesterday evening, we presented the results of 8 months of water quality testing at popular Oxford swimming spots (Port Meadow, Longbridges and Kennington Meadows) via zoom, as part of Oxfordshire’s Great Big Green Week. The slides from this event and recording can now be viewed below (recording 1 – presentation, recording 2 – Q&A).

Press release: Sewage pollution makes popular Oxford bathing site unsafe after rainfall, study finds

Sewage pollution is raising bacteria levels in Oxford’s popular swimming spots to unsafe levels after rainfall, new research has found.  Research by the Oxford Rivers Project, a campaign to end sewage pollution in the Upper Thames, found that in relatively dry months (March, April, July, and August) levels of harmful bacteria were low enough for the water quality to be considered

Monthly(ish) update: Sept 2021 (1)

Greetings river nymphs, dryads and concerned human citizens, Hope you had a happy summer (summer?) break over August, with some peaceful, fun and possibly rather chilly river swims. We’re so close to submitting the application to make Port Meadow in Oxford the UK’s second ever swimming river, we can nearly smell it! Although, hopefully, once

Monthly update: July 2021

Credit: Laura Reineke Hello everyone! I’m thoroughly enjoying cooling river dips in this scorching weather, but it’s hard to believe last month we had days of grey cloud and torrential rain, and May was the coldest in 25 years. Sadly, climate change is already making our weather more extreme (which doesn’t mean there isn’t still a lot we can

River water quality results – what do they mean??

Our bacterial river water quality sampling programme has been in motion for nearly 6 months now. Samples were collected for the first 3 months of the year by a contractor, and for the last 3 months by our band of roving citizen scientists, and are analysed by Thames Water’s labs every week. The raw results