This time, there’s good news and bad news, events to put in your diary and important help needed… please read to the end :)
1. E. coli at the lagoon
All has not been quiet on the riverbank. With help from several River Char Action Group members, Julie Leah has been testing the lagoon at the river mouth all summer. If you haven’t seen the results, see the traffic light chart below (click on it for the detail). E. coli levels were over the Environment Agency recommended levels on 46% of the days we tested. We’ve sent the data to our colleague at the EA for analysis.
2. Finding… fixing faults
In the course of our river testing further upstream, we found a pipe leaking heavily polluted water into the river. With help from Jackie and Gareth Rees we did more tests, got photos and location data. The day we reported it to Wessex Water via the Clean Rivers of West Dorset (CROWD) Group, Wessex Water had engineers on site. They phoned the next day with a report and the impending closure of Bridge Road in Charmouth is to allow them to fix a misconnection. A good result for Citizen Science!
3. Can you help us with rainwater separation in the village?
Collaborating with Wessex Water over the last five years on river testing, identifying pollution and getting sewage spills significantly reduced has been a real success story. We now have a significant opportunity to lead a project to separate out rainwater at source in or near Charmouth. If you know a significant site (i.e. larger than a house) where rain and surface water currently goes into the mains sewerage system, we could get funding to change that — reducing the pressure on the mains during heavy rain and further reducing the risk of spills into the river. If you have ideas or would like to help, please contact andrew@westhay.com
4. Pollution events still happen
This photo (below) appeared on Facebook last week, suggesting a serious pollution event. By the time we heard about it, it was much too late to do anything. If you see pollution in the river, as soon as possible:
Take photos and/or film.
Identify the location exactly (what3words ideally).
Call the Environment Agency and get an incident reference number.
If it looks like sewage and it’s south of the A35 on the River Char, call Wessex Water.
Contact us
All details are on our website: https://www.riverchar.org/pollution.html
5. What’s polluting the River Char? And what can we do about it?
Join us for an evening of practical talks with local experts Dr. John Kenward and Dr Julie Leah on Thursday 15 October, 2026 ~ 7pm at James Hargreaves Hall, Morcombelake DT6 6EA
John and Julie will explore:
Flea and tick treatments – how to protect our pets without damaging river life
Pesticides and garden chemicals – caring for our homes and gardens without harming the environment
Slurry and sewage – what local river monitoring is finding
6. Help us launch Chemical Free Charmouth
We have the idea to launch a local scheme to help gardeners, homeowners, pet owners and landowners reduce and then eliminate their use of toxic chemical pesticides and herbicides — so these chemicals don’t get into our river. We’re planning a talk about the subject in Charmouth on Wednesday 25th November. But we’re all extremely busy and need help. If you’d like to get involved, please contact us - reply to this email or write to rivercharmonitoring@gmail.com
If you have been, thanks for reading. (And don’t forget: Please sign our charter).
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We gratefully acknowledge funding support from Dorset National Landscape, Wessex Water Foundation, Dorset Community Foundation, Charmouth Parish Council, Char Valley Parish Council and Gane & Marshall.
