In an effort to increase and improve water quality monitoring, at a time when Environment Agency monitoring is being reduced, BART are leading a citizen science ‘BART River Detectives’ project kindly funded by Wessex Water, Bath & North East Somerset Council, Bristol Water and the Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership. The project involves volunteers from local communities conducting monthly water quality monitoring of key sections of the River Chew, Bristol Frome, and the Cam, Wellow and Midford Brooks.
BART River Detectives will have an important role to play in filling the gaps in water quality monitoring and reconnect people with their local watercourse by empowering local communities with a sense of ownership, which we hope will create a legacy.
BART River Detectives will supplement BART’s annual RiverBlitz citizen science project, providing us with a more frequent and in-depth data set within our catchment. Volunteers have been fully trained and provided with their own easy-to-use testing kits, which analyse turbidity, temperature, total dissolved solids and phosphate.
Each volunteer has been allocated a sampling site where they will take these measurements on a monthly basis, and the data collected will be displayed on an interactive map hosted on BART’s website, alongside the data BART have collected through our annual RiverBlitz project, which will provide a more extensive data set and understanding of river health within the catchment.
By getting involved in this citizen science project you will be helping BART to monitor the health of our local rivers and helping protect and enhancing them for the benefit of both people and wildlife.
We currently have spaces for volunteers on the River Chew.
If you live near the River Chew and would like to get involved, please contact molly@bristolavonriverstrust.org for more information.
