Main image: Dana Assinder
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Here's why that sign is at the river mouth:
Levels of E Coli and Intestinal Enterococci at the pool of the River Char (just before the beach at Charmouth) are very high. E Coli levels recently averaged 3,135. The acceptable upper limit is 900. The River Char was more than three times over that level. Intestinal Enterococci levels averaged 2,750. The acceptable upper limit is 330. The River Char was more than eight times over that level.
Intestinal Enterococci and some strains of E coli can cause urinary tract infections, gastroenteritis, endocarditis, diverticulitis, meningitis, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, colitis and Crohn's disease.
Levels of E Coli and Intestinal Enterococci at the pool of the River Char (just before the beach at Charmouth) are very high. E Coli levels recently averaged 3,135. The acceptable upper limit is 900. The River Char was more than three times over that level. Intestinal Enterococci levels averaged 2,750. The acceptable upper limit is 330. The River Char was more than eight times over that level.
Intestinal Enterococci and some strains of E coli can cause urinary tract infections, gastroenteritis, endocarditis, diverticulitis, meningitis, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, colitis and Crohn's disease.
RIVER Char ACTION GROUP CAMPAIGN 2025
1. River Water Campaign – to clean up our river…
We have worked closely with Wessex Water, urging it to:
- Take immediate action to eliminate untreated sewage discharges at Newlands Bridge and to make improvements to the Charmouth Sewage Treatment Plant in its 2025-2030 programme of works.
2. Coastal Waters Campaign – to clean up our beach and sea…
We have worked closely with Wessex Water, urging it to:
- Cut discharges of untreated sewage into the sea to less than 10 per year and 3 per bathing season.
- In 2024, we coordinated two major interventions by the Nurdle Organisation to to clean up the plastic biobeads and nurdles, which are littering Charmouth Beach and river mouth. See details here
- We support the Heritage Coast Centre's beach clean events to remove larger plastics and litter from the beach.
In 2025...
1. Public Awareness: We call on the relevant authorities to implement clearer signage and public notification systems about water quality risks in the River Char.
2. Continued Monitoring: We will maintain and extend our water quality monitoring, including additional Riverfly survey sites. We will seek funding for equipment to provide extended monitoring of ammonia and bacterial pollution in particular. We have asked Wessex Water to support continued testing during 2025. We will also start independent testing of the sea east of the River Char to establish whether significant levels of treated and untreated sewage are washed inshore from the Long Sea Outfall.
3. Source Investigation: We have added targeted investigations to identify and address specific pollution sources, particularly in areas showing significant increases in contamination. This will include the use of microbial source tracking (MST) to identify which species – human, ruminant (cow) or bird (seagull and duck) – are responsible for the bacterial contamination of the river.
4. Agricultural Practices: We will continue to strongly support the work of Dorset National Landscape and Dorset Wildlife Trust in partnering with local farmers to implement best practices for reducing runoff and nutrient pollution and river pollution from all sources. We will encourage Char Valley Parish Council to do the same.
5. Domestic and commercial septic tanks and sewage treatment plants: We will increase our efforts to raise public awareness about risks to the river from faulty, poorly maintained or over-full sewage tanks. We will encourage Char Valley Parish Council to do the same.
6. Wastewater Infrastructure: We will continue to collaborate with Wessex Water and monitor their progress toward delivering their undertakings to improve wastewater treatment and reduce storm overflow events.
7. Policy Advocacy: We will use these findings to advocate stronger environmental regulations and enforcement at local and national levels, through our membership of CROWD: Clean Rivers of West Dorset. We will ask our MP to share these findings.
8. Community Engagement: We will continue to involve and educate the local community in river stewardship efforts and through the Charmouth Dragon River Festival.
9. Funding: We will continue to seek funding and support to cover the costs of our extended programme of work. Our members will continue to work on a voluntary basis and we will recruit new members and more volunteers.
3. Other Sea and River Issues – we will also campaign on 2 key issues:
- Climate-led Sea Level Rise: we will press for full information on Wessex Water’s strategy to respond to this (particularly in relation to Charmouth Sewage Treatment Works).
- Community Projects: we will seek funding to help residents use water butts and other water-saving techniques to reduce the amount of rainwater entering the combined sewer.
CAMPAIGN EVENTS
We hosted the Charmouth Dragon River Festival on 27th May, 2023. We coordinated Nurdle's two beach clean events in Spring 2024, with a community information day on 10th March 2024 and a river walk and film evening in August. The next River Dragon Festival is on 31st May 2025.
To support our campaign, please join us (it's free).
Read our Campaign Summary.