Friends of the River

The latest edition of WyeLocal (also incorporating Local Beacon upside down from the back) has an article about the algae blooms that have been reported along the River Wye, and a group of people from the local Extinction Rebellion group who want to do something about it by forming a Friends of the River group to research what is causing the problems leading to the algae blooms (is it the increase in poultry farms or something else?) and to find out who is responsible for doing something about it.

Meanwhile on the local Facebook page there is news of bad pollution on the River Llynfi, which has killed many fish and also affected invertebrate life.  This happened on Friday, and it's been a busy weekend on the river with many people visiting and paddling and canoeing, and dogs jumping in and so forth.  Yet there doesn't seem to have been any information available to those visitors about the pollution and whether it is safe to go into the water.  

The Llynfi runs into the Wye at Glasbury and the local canoe group Glasbury Paddlers have cancelled their meeting in case someone falls in and ingests polluted water.

National Resources Wales seems to be the body with responsibility here and they have said, according to one commenter on the Community Facebook page, that they don't know what the pollutant is, but that they don't think it is still getting into the water.  They have collected samples for testing but the results are not out yet, and have been out along the river assessing the damage to the fish population, and trying to find the source of the pollution.

The River Llynfi is a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of the population of white clawed crayfish there - assuming they have survived.