Water Quality Surveys
Citizen Science Water Monitoring
Why is REACT involved with water monitoring?
After screening Cornwall Climate Care’s film Down the Drain about climate change and Cornwall’s freshwater, REACT members decided to help monitor river and stream quality on the Roseland.
What are the issues and impacts?
Storm overflows can release sewage into rivers and streams, affecting beaches, bathing water, and freshwater and marine life. Farm runoff can carry slurry and fertiliser into streams, raising nitrogen and phosphorus levels and causing algal blooms. Climate change worsens this through heavier rain and warmer water.
Although the 2021 Environment Act set improvement targets, progress has been slow and the Environment Agency now has less capacity to inspect farms and hold water companies to account.
Poor water quality affects us and the natural world:
What is REACT doing?
Volunteers monitor river and stream health across the Roseland and hope to add more sites as capacity grows.
REACT began with Pendower Stream, which rises in farmland, receives treated water from Veryan sewage treatment works, passes through National Trust woodland, and reaches Pendower beach. Each month, volunteers visit sites along the stream to take photos, record observations, and measure water quality using a West Country Rivers Trust protocol. The results are uploaded alongside data from hundreds of other sites across the South West.
We now monitor additional sites from Portholland to Ruan and Philleigh, including the River Fal above Sett Bridge.
What’s new?
Since spring 2026, after training from the Riverfly Partnership, we have added biological monitoring to our monthly sampling. After a standard three-minute kick sample, volunteers record stonefly, mayfly and caddisfly larvae, plus shrimps. Because these species are sensitive to water quality, their numbers help to indicate stream health.
What have we found?
We now have two years of data from Pendower. WRT’s annual scorecard rates the stream as Good overall, but dissolved phosphate remains a concern.
Volunteer data can highlight declining water quality and help spot pollution early. REACT also aims to connect people with their local rivers and build a community that cares for the local environment.
What can you do?
Join us! We welcome more volunteers to help expand monitoring across the Roseland. Join in a session and meet the friendly and experienced team who will be very happy to guide you. After that if you decide to get regularly involved there is simple online training for WRT monitoring, plus a one-day Riverfly course to enthuse you about catching and counting freshwater invertebrates!
REACT in collaboration with:
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