Citizen Scientists Keep Track of Brent River Pollution

New system devised to check quality of water

A sewage outflow pipe on the River Brent

July 6, 2023

A group of citizen scientists from Ealing and Hanwell are working with the Environment Agency (EA) to keep track of pollution in a local river.

A new system for monitoring the quality of the water has been developed by members of the Clean Up the River Brent campaign (CURB). They have deployed devices along the River Brent at regular intervals and they are set to provide water quality readings every 15 minutes.

This will enable CURB and the EA to compile data and build up a picture of river pollution over time and will act as an early warning system for severe discharges, which volunteers can then follow up with more detailed monitoring.

The system has been designed to be low cost so that it can be deployed by other volunteer groups. It is solar powered and uses a chip made by Raspberry Pi. The system has its own Twitter account, @BrentMonitoring, which will provide frequent updates from along the river.

The inventor of the device, CURB campaigner Johnny Clifford said, “I'm delighted that the Environment Agency has chosen to support our trial. We're hoping that live, low-cost monitoring can revolutionise how communities protect their precious rivers, and it starts here in the Brent Valley. My device costs less than a cheap mobile phone to build, so for the first time whole-catchment monitoring is in the reach of community organisations and citizen scientists."

Brent River & Canal Society (BRCS) Trustee and founder of CURB, Ben Morris, added, “We are very excited to have received the support of the Environment Agency, which will enable a catchment-wide roll out of this system, and are determined to raise the water quality in the Brent, which is badly degraded.”

Ben discusses the project in more detail in this Environment Agency video.

Part two of our Friday posts from @Lewis_EA_ on his work on the River Brent.

This week, Ben Morris from 'Clean Up River Brent' talks about our joint work on monitoring water quality on the Brent.

Part one here - https://t.co/N5a8asUSDu#Brent #London #RiverBrent pic.twitter.com/bj6sxqwP4j

— Environment AgencySE (@EnvAgencySE) June 23, 2023

Public concern over sewage discharge into rivers has been rising as campaign groups like CURB have drawn attention to it. In January this year, the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee noted that “only 14% of English rivers meet good ecological status” and criticised the lack of investment in pollution monitoring saying, “It is currently difficult to get a complete overview of the health of rivers due to outdated, underfunded and inadequate monitoring. Budget cuts to the Environment Agency have hampered the ability to monitor water quality in rivers and detect permit breaches or pollution incidents from the water industry and farming.”

Volunteer groups are now attempting to fill that gap. Should the trials prove successful, the device developed by CURB could enable local groups around the country to monitor their rivers and provide essential information to the Environment Agency.

CURB and the BRCS will be providing regular updates on this project as well as drawing attention to the wider issues of pollution along the River Brent.

To find out more about CURB and get involved with the monitoring project or any of its other activities, see this page on the BRCS website.