About Us

We are a group of Ilkley residents who were shocked at the way that raw sewage was being discharged into the river frequently, even in the summer months. Some of us had logged this happening regularly since February 2014 but could find no way of stopping it.

We discovered that watercourses all over the country are used by water companies to get rid of both raw and treated sewage effluent. This is happening even when the level of water on the river or stream is low and the effluent is being discharged onto dry gravel. This is apparently perfectly legal and the Environment Agency in England and Wales issues permits to water companies to allow them to do this. In so-called ‘storm’ conditions, it is legal to discharge raw, untreated sewage with all solids such as faeces, toilet paper, wet wipes, tampons and condoms straight into the water – or the gravel and sandy areas that have been exposed because the river is low. This is happening sometimes even when there is only relatively light rain and not when there is a real storm.

We formed a group to liaise with the relevant authorities and other interested organisations and held public meetings, met our MP and sent out press releases. We decided that one way to bring the problem to the attention of the public was to apply for bathing water status, which would require the Environment Agency to sample the water and test it for certain types of pollution. Part of the area we applied for is already visited by hundreds of people in the summer months but despite this was never been monitored to see if it was polluted or safe.

The Environment Agency’s advice was that no rivers or streams in the UK can be regarded as clean enough to swim in.