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The Afon Teifi Working Group was set up in October 2023 to link the various groups and organisations working on the river and share ongoing project information. Participants from:
- Natural Resources Wales NRW
- Ceredigion County Council CeCC
- Carmarthenshire County Council CaCC
- West Wales Rivers Trust WWRT
- Save the Teifi STT
- Nutrient Management Board NMB
- Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water DCWW
Meeting Notes from October 2023 (Taken by Moira Williams):
DCWW drinking water: Talks to WI to spread awareness, engagement with farming families via Farming Connect, weather stations to be set up on farms.
DCWW waste water: working with NRW 28 new tighter permits on Teifi – 14 backstop and 14 tighter than backstop – to reduce phos. Two accelerated into current 5 year plan – Lampeter and Llanybydder. These 2 will remove a big proportion of phos needed. (Slaughterhouse has own permit & phos not on it). With CeCC assessing suitable wetlands for trialling phos removal near treatment works – potentially Cilgerran, Cenarth, Clettwr.
NRW: Ari Team – 10 in north, 10 in south – visiting every farm with more than 200 head cattle in Ceredigion – checking compliance with new agri regs. Advisory and enforcement. Aug 2023 new slurry regs – farmers to track amount and where spread, assess weather conds and risks, management plan. Storage potential problem, esp if not enough before slurry spreading re-starts. Need to address how farmers’ habits will change, re nutrient load in river. Need to help farmers look at stock/land/nutrient ratio. Potential of losing small dairy farms over new regs.
4Rivers4Life project – linked to above, working with farmers. Real slurry problem on smaller farms esp on some Teifi tributaries eg Hirwaun. Riparian fencing ongoing.
NRW recruitment freeze until April 24.
Report for parameters of nutrients in marine env – imminent.
CeCC – Nutrient Management Board set up. 9Km riparian fencing done with WWRT, 13 farms with management plans, SUDs planter schemes in towns eg Cardigan and Lampeter (part of PRAM project – Phosphate Reduction & Mitigation), septic tank guidance distributed, monitoring equipment purchased for cit sci.
Wetland Mitigation areas – Cilgerran, Cenarth, Afon Clettwr (wet woodland)
Hoping to have open access website in near future for post-mitigation data. Using Sonds/Lorawan monitoring methods.
A team in Aber uni looking at creating an app for logging landuse – to be trialled in Teifi Demonstrator project.
Meeting Notes from January 2024 (Taken by Moira Williams):
NRW: Positive news about Teifi Demonstrator Project set up. Application in for Offwat grant of £2m with more funding from DCWW – 15 stakeholder groups involved – to tie in with Dem Proj. To look at new ways of collaborative working, innovative ways to tackle river issues and land management. Hackthon event planned 28/29 Feb in Aberystwyth to gather ideas for project.
DCWW: drinking water catchment team – plans for monitoring equipment to be fitted at Llechryd upstream of works, to monitor any changes before water reaches the works. Will be solar powered and test for dissolved oxygen, temp, ammonia, turbidity; nitrates and phos will still be dip-sampled as online monitoring still not robust enough. Plane to fit it at Glan Teifi by the NRW mon station. Potential to also see future mitigation from a Cenarth wetlands installation. Will take 12 months to get set up, then another 12 months to get first data baseline set to be shared – plans for open sharing online.
DCWW: waste water – DCWW to contribute at least 10% of Offwat grant – £2000. Live monitoring programme on the Teifi in development. Asset monitoring to be assessed re priority. Talks with CeCC re wetlands feasibility. Data re Cilgerran is better than permit – needed phos levels of 5, but reading 2.5 thus no immed need of wetlands. Were 12 works being assessed – 3 have gone through to next level of assessment, incl Cenarth
NRW: Agri team for farm visits – 500 to be done in catchment. 93 farms with over 500 head, 346 with 200-500 head – high risk farms. Another team will visit remaining smaller farms.
River4Life – Tackling riparian strips on farms with land on the Teifi tributaries. $.5km of fencing put in, 1000 trees to be planted in the next week. Re-meandering plans for the Teifi on Cors Caron – feasibility ongoing with landowners and heavy metal analysis.
INNS (invasive Non Native Species) – Himalayan balsam problems in Tregaron, Nant Coy and Dulais – working with WWRT to map areas. Plans to hit hard again next year. Cych and Hirwaen have rust trials – awaiting spring to see if rust has survived. Some ongoing issues re getting the right rusts from Nepal. Also problems with Skunk Cabbage at Henllan, Old Cilgyn and the Ceri.
NRW in process of reviewing DVWW permits – 27 assets in this round. List of permits on NRW website.
Incidents – Jan – Dec 2023 152 reported to NRW. 98 Ceredigion, 26 Carm, 26 Pembs. 103 were water related pollution (NRW asked to bring detailed breakdown to next meeting) Bathing water at Poppit still classed as excellent. Failures flagged by Water Framework Directive are ongoing – invertebrates, fish – see Water Watch Wales on NRW website.
CeCC: PRAM project has ended – more SUDS fitted in Lampeter, Cors Caron carpark. 4 more farm visits in Ceredigion – small ones most problems.Farmer worry re new regs/NVZ, slurry storage issues, financial worries. Ceri and Hirwaun flagged again.
Sustainable Farming Scheme drop in dates for farmers arranged.
STT: No NMB meeting last month as no updates to report from the working groups (Citizen Sci, Monitoring, Agri).
Meeting notes from 23/4/24 (Taken by Moira Williams):
13th May will be a drop-in session at Mwldan with DCWW re new sewage treatment plans
Still looking for farm reps for this group
Updates:
DCWW – continuation of plans re Cardigan development. Awaiting Ofwat decisions.
WI groups with Teifi & Me project creating mural for wall at Paddlers in Llandysul.
Another slurry spill on Hirwaen – 4th in 2 months. NRW putting in cont monitoring to get to the bottom of where from. Issue of weekend/night-time dumping of slurry.
NRW – hackathon –6 themes came from it – Jon working on ideas to take them forward/by who
Of the 12 varied permits for DCWW only 6 now outstanding
Work ongoing on Dulas – volunteer groups/agri visits/remeandering
Cors Caron raised bog project finished – guided walk 9th May
Llechryd orthophos readings – a definite wave pattern seen. NRW to report back if any reason why.
STT – Llais yr Afon project started. School visits started. Awaiting kits from CeCC. Call out for volunteers. Liasing with current monitoring. Source to Sea walk. Petition to Senedd.
Liza (CeCC) has 10 packs for community use
Discussion on where data will be going. EpiCollect app? Survey123? Harriet to email details.
Court case in Aber Mag Crt in May re slurry spill in Teifi catchment. (where?)
NMB/Stakeholder group – nut man plans underway for the 3 catchments – suggested we see them before they go to the board for feedback – their next mtg June 5th
CeCC – still identifying 1st phase monitoring sites. Clearwater monitoring. 4 phos, 1 nitrate, multiple sondes, 3 tmp probes. Correlating with NRW rainfall and river height data. Site at Cilgerran, Cenarth – need to talk to landowner. Maybe Emlyn? Llanio and Llanybydder.
Finishing the details for 2nd phase bid. To get supplier for more monitoring equipment. To fill in gaps from 1st phase. Esp tributary areas. Use cit sci to help fill gaps. Overlay monitoring data with all other data eg land use, barriers, houses, etc. To roll out this project to other council areas.
Liza organising the 1st mtg of the NMB/TAG monitoring sub-group 9th May
Wetlands feasibility study – stalled. Issues with NRW and the discharge land belongiing to a 3rd person, not NRW/DCWW. Also- wet woodland could add to the nutrient issue? (Dr Alice Muller research unit in London?) Something for the Demonstrator project to look at?
NRW have issued a permit for controlled beaver release in Teifi catchment! Away from main river and main tributaries. Owner will be monitoring.
WWRT – Cont Sediment Pathways programme – 500 points identified – farmyard/arable/livestock/road. Remedial suggestions ongoing.
INNS – planning full eradication on Dulas and Nant Ceiliog. NRW to feed back on results of rust trials on Ystwyth – has it survived the winter?
9.8km fencing – full livestock exclusion.
2 rainwater planters. Fishpass scheme ongoing.
Jo new Adopt a Tributary community officer Carm.
Llais yr Afon started.
Outfall Safari – template due in a couple of weeks.
Forestry – liming at top of catchment
Next meeting 16 July
See this link for information on the Teifi Demonstrator project (including the Hackathon): https://www.teifi.one/resources/about-the-teifi/the-teifi-demonstrator-project
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