0ver 50 volunteers are now signed up to be River Guardians of the River Mersey

Mersey Rivers Trust have now trained more than 50 River Guardian volunteers to take regular water samples, to help identify changes in the water quality in the Mersey Basin.

The training is part of the Love Your River and Call of Nature campaigns and will contribute to the water quality reporting required for the LIFE IP funded project, Natural Course.

Since the pilot launched in March 2016, there are now more than 50 trained volunteers who have all learnt to take regular water samples in their local river. The volunteers will regularly check nitrate and phosphate levels to help identify changes in water quality.

The trained volunteers will contribute to the information required for measuring the impact of the Natural Course project and will strengthen the Love Your River and Call of Nature campaigns – both campaigns were set up to prevent local rivers and brooks being polluted by wrongly connected plumbing or poorly maintained off mains sewage systems such as septic tanks and package treatment plants.

High levels of phosphates and nitrates in the water can drastically affect the water quality damaging the wildlife that the river supports, and these River Guardians will play a vital role in reporting any disturbances affecting the water quality.

Caroline Riley, Partnership Manager at the Mersey Rivers Trust, said:

“The Mersey Rivers Trust is really excited to have so many River Guardians signed up to help us with these projects. From the data they collect we can really start to paint a detailed picture of the impacts on our river catchment and help us identify problematic areas to focus our efforts on. We hope to eventually expand this training across the whole of the Mersey Basin.”

Further information about the River Guardians scheme and details of how to join can be requested from info@merseyrivers.org.  

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