How healthy are our rivers?
Under the Water Framework Directive, a piece of U.K. legislation, there is a target to get all rivers and lakes into ‘good’ status.
Currently, none of the rivers in England and Wales meet this standard due to the presence of chemicals.
The ‘ecological status’ focuses on biological water quality, ecology and physical habitat. The Environment Agency classify river sections from ‘good’ to ‘bad’ based on monitoring data. Only 45% of river sections in West Cumbria achieve ‘good’ status, with diffuse pollution from agriculture, historic mining and channel modifications being the main issues. Scroll down to find out more about the issues, they ways the Partnership is addressing them and a map of issues across West Cumbria.