NEW analysis of official Environment Agency data has revealed the worrying scale of chemical pollution in rivers and lakes– with the Mersey at Warrington the most polluted river in England.
The research, which looked at the prevalence of five chemical cocktails known to have toxic impacts for wildlife, also highlights the lack of official monitoring for known harmful chemical cocktails, as well as the lack of a regulatory framework to address these mixtures.
The Mersey above Howley Weir at Warrington was found to have the highest number of individual chemicals of any river in England.
Findings from Wildlife and Countryside Link and The Rivers Trust reveal that:
•Chemical cocktails harmful to wildlife, have been found in 814 river and lake sites (out of 1,006 sites with data – 81% ) and 805 groundwater sites (out of 1,086 sites with data – 74%) across England
•Over half (54%) of these sites contained three or more of the five harmful chemical cocktails investigated.
•Up to 101 chemicals were identified in river samples, with sites along the rivers Mersey, Stour, Colne, Thames, Trent, Yare, Irwell, Medway, Humber and Avon among those containing the highest numbers of chemicals. The actual numbers of chemical pollutants will be even higher, the researchers say.
The chemical cocktails found across the 1,619 sites contained six different chemicals in five different hazardous mixtures. These included four toxic forever chemicals PFOS, PFOA, PFBS and PFHxS, the pesticide 2,4-D and the commonly used painkiller ibuprofen.
In specific combinations these chemicals are known to have increased harmful impacts on a range of species including amphibians, fish, insects, nitrogen-fixing bacteria and algae.
implications through contact via bathing or recreation remain unknown.
A group of charities, including Wildlife and Countryside Link, The Rivers Trust, Surfers Against Sewage, Buglife, WildFish, Fidra, Pesticide Action Network UK, The Wildlife Trusts, The National Trust, Whale and Dolphin Conservation and the Pesticide Collaboration, are launching a “Chemical Cocktail Campaign”today, urging the Government to take a much more ambitious approach to regulating harmful chemicals. Their calls include asking Government to include in its forthcoming UK Chemicals Strategy: regular monitoring for chemical cocktails in rivers, and new legal protections against dangerous chemical cocktails, including requiring assessments of potential hazardous chemical mixture impacts before any new chemical is allowed on the market.
Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “A harmful chemical cocktail is being stirred up in UK rivers, putting wildlife and public health at risk. Government regulates and monitors chemicals individually, ignoring the cocktail effect. But our research shows that toxic combinations of pesticides, pharmaceuticals and forever chemicals are polluting rivers up and down the country. The new Chemicals Strategy must make sure harmful substances are regulated not just for individual risks, but for their effects in combination.”
Rob Collins, director of Policy and Science at the Rivers Trust, said: “We need to stop pumping poison into our rivers. Hazardous chemicals are flowing into our waters, derived from every aspect of our lives. On the small-scale from the toiletries, food packaging, clothing and other goods we use individually, to large-scale industrial, medical and food production, we are creating an ever-growing chemical cocktail in our rivers. The fact that these known toxic chemical combinations are found so widely across the country is deeply worrying. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Unless we act now we’ll see increasingly contaminated water, less wildlife in our rivers and ocean, and this raises implications for human health as well.”
Ellen Bradley, Co-Director of UK Youth For Nature, said: “The chemical cocktail in our rivers is a recipe for disaster for nature and future generations. Everything from the clothes we wear to the medicines we use plays a part in the problem. Even the food we eat everyday is part of a broken system that is choking our rivers with harmful chemicals and leaving UK wildlife paying the price. Tougher chemical controls and curbs on agricultural pollution are vital if younger people are to see our not so freshwater cleaned up in their lifetimes.”
A range of five known toxic chemical cocktails was looked for in Environment Agency data. While there are other known toxic combinations (and likely many more unknown) a narrow focus was used due to the volume of data that needed to be reviewed. All of the chemical combinations focused on cocktail impacts with the harmful and extremely prevalent forever chemicals perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) . These were chosen due to how widespread they are (despite having been banned) and the need for them to be recorded under Water Framework Directive requirements, making them more visible chemical contaminants for assessment.
The North West is highlighted as an area of particular concern in the research.
Seventy per cent of river, lake and groundwater sources in the region – including the Mersey and the Weaver – have chemical cocktails present.
That’s 239 sites out of 340 – and 154 sites are polluted by three or more chemical cocktails.
The Mersey and the Weaver have been identified as rivers with the most number of chemical cocktails.
Maximum number of chemicals identified in any one river in the North West is 101 – the River Mersey above Howley Weir.
