How toxic are Britain's rivers? Feargal Sharkey tests the River Severn with LBC

Nick Ferrari at Breakfast has teamed up with Feargal Sharkey to take a closer look at the shocking state of Britain’s rivers.

Sharkey is best known as the lead vocalist of iconic 70s punk band The Undertones, but he's also a lifelong fly-fisher who has become synonymous with the issue of water pollution.

Now, he's set about testing the UK’s best-known rivers to see what he can uncover.

Every Friday, LBC will travel with Mr Sharkey to a new location. In this latest episode, he travels to the Worcester section of Britain’s longest river, the River Severn, where he makes a shocking discovery.

Phosphate levels six times higher than the EA’s upper limit were detected, whilst ammonia was at twice the level at which damage starts to occur to wildlife inhabiting the water.

The most concerning result, however, was the concentration of E Coli. When measuring E Coli, the EA examines the number of colony forming units (CFUs) in 100ml of water, with anything above 900 CFUs per 100ml deemed to represent “poor quality bathing water”.

At 48,900 CFUs per 100ml, the River Severn was found to have E Coli levels almost fifty-five times above that point.

Upon finding out this information, Nick invites anyone from Severn Trent Water or the Environment Agency to speak to him about these findings 'any time, any place.'

Listen to the full show on Global Player

#feargalsharkey #environment #LBC

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