Main image: Dana Assinder
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 call on Wessex Water to:
- Take urgent action to stop all sewage discharges at Newlands Bridge (recently 12-19 per year) [UPDATE: Wessex Water says it will do this as a priority]
- Work with Newlands Holiday Park and houses on Stonebarrow Lane to • seal any defective drains and • stop rainwater from roofs, roads and hard standing entering the sewer network. [UPDATE: Wessex Water is working on this.]
- Restart regular water quality monitoring along the River Char and the Monkton Wyld Stream and to publish that data.
- Restart monitoring water quality again at the mouth of the River Char and to publish that data. [Here's why we need to clean up the lagoon at the mouth of the River Char.]
We undertake to continue our programme of independent riverfly, CSI and bacteriological testing along the length of the river with the aim of identifying and eliminating all major sources of pollution.
2. Coastal Waters Campaign – to clean up our beach and sea…
We call on Wessex Water to:
- Cut discharges of untreated sewage into the sea to less than 10 per year and 3 per bathing season. [These happen about 70 times a year into the sea, with no pollution alert required.] [UPDATE: Wessex Water has included this in its 2025-30 5-year plan]
- Enforce the requirement for no storm discharges at Newlands Bridge
- Extend its definition of ‘Bathing season’ beyond May-Sept and reclassify discharges from the Long Sea Outfall as “high priority”.
- In Spring 2024, we coordinated two major interventions by the Nurdle Organisation to use purpose-built machinery to clean up the plastic biobeads and nurdles, which are littering Charmouth Beach and river mouth. See details here
- We support Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre's beach clean events, where humans remove larger plastics and other litter from the beach.
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.