The majority of English rivers, lakes and waters off the country's coast remain in a challenging state with none free of chemical pollution and only 14% receiving a good ecological bill of health, the Environment Agency said Thursday. File Photo by Abbasi1111/Wikimedia Commons
Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The majority of English rivers, lakes and waters off the country's coast remain in a challenging state with none free of chemical pollution and only 14% receiving a good ecological bill of health, the Environment Agency said Thursday.
Data from the first comprehensive testing of their health since before the COVID-19 pandemic indicated lakes were in the worst condition with ony 7% receiving a "good," compared with 15% of rivers.
In a separate chemical pollution test, no body of water met the required standard, with toxic PFAS-- "forever chemicals" -- and phosphate from sewage and animal waste from farms the main concerns.
The safe limit for phosphate was exceeded in about 50% of rivers suggesting that a massive 10-year, $30 billion drive by England's 16 water utilities to clean up the country's water by 2030 was not delivering.
