Citizen scientists doing their bit in the battle against river pollution in Shropshire
Shropshire river clean-up campaigners are calling for more action to tackle chemicals as some experts fear the way water quality is measured is "out of date".
A mini-army of citizen scientists in Shropshire are doing their bit by measuring a small range of chemicals in the rivers Severn, Clun and Onny, but they say it is only the tip of an enormous iceberg.
The Environment Agency says it looks for 1,614 chemicals in water samples using targeted screening.
It was responding to a report in the New Scientist which claimed that random sampling of water quality is "lucky" if it catches pollution being flushed into the rivers following rain.
"They aren't even testing for some chemicals," claimed campaigner Claire Kirby of the Shrewsbury-based group Up Sewage Creek.
The River Severn through the town has a number of sewage outfalls where waste water is allowed to go straight into the river when it rains heavily.
"There are chemotherapy drugs that people take and when they go to the loo it goes into the water system including the river," she said.
"There is a vast range of chemicals that aren't widely tested for."
Campaigners are also concerned about so-called Forever Chemicals that hardly degrade in the natural environment and have been found in the blood and breast milk of people and wildlife all round the world.
