Watching the River Frome

Dog walkers and other members of the public who walk by the river are being to watch over the health of the River Frome, and the tributaries that flow into it.

Friends of the River Frome says that, during the past year, there has been spate of pollution incidents that have affected the river including a major fish kill caused by farm slurry last spring. Walkers are asked to look out for large quantities of foam coming from pipes or other outfalls and cloudy water in small streams with a detergent or sewage smell.

In the countryside, livestock slurry spread within 10 metres of a stream or the river, or within 50 metres of a spring is another major risk to our river and farmers are reminded to comply with the rules on spreading organic fertiliser. Breaches of these rules, if observed, and other pollution incidents, should be immediately reported to the Environment Agency’s hotline on 0800 80 70 60 and reports copied to improvethesomersetfrome@gmail.com or posted to the Facebook Group ImprovetheSomersetFrome. Reports need to include time, date and location, a description of the pollution and, if possible, photos.

Recent incidents that have been reported include detergent entering the river via Frome Sewage Treatment Works, sewage and detergent in The Dippy culvert and slurry being spread too close to the river near Blatchbridge.

The River Friends are also working with Wessex Water, which has installed monitoring devices on major Combined Sewer Outfalls in the town and with the Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART), which is currently looking for contaminated runoff from fields and farm tracks for the Somerset Frome Diffuse Pollution Project.  As part of this project, BART will be putting together a report detailing opportunity areas for future improvements.