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Save the Teifi Updates by Callum Firth (Oct 2024)
Source to Sea 9th -11th August – The team carried water from Teifi Pools to Poppit sands. There were 24 participants on the 9th who walked from Teifi Pools to Tregaron, a core of 5 then walked onto Lampeter. The next day 22 cyclists rode from Lampeter to Newcastle Emlyn along some enchanting sections of the Teifi. On the final day the core team cycled from Newcastle Emlyn to Llechryd via Cenarth where they were joined by 20 walkers and 24 paddlers who all made their way to Poppit Sands, along the way they were joined by the Cilgerran Coracle Paddlers and the Poppit Life Savers. The weather was outstanding and the final celebratory event involved around 120 people supported by excellent singers and musicians.
Many thanks to the core organising team:- Moria Williams, Judith Firth, Adam Dawson & Daryl Gasson for their excellent organisational skills, and to all those wonderful people who supplied food and help especially on the last evening.🙏🙏🙏🙏Citizen Science Activities – There are now 10 groups undertaking water quality measurements on Teifi tributaries. The sites have been selected based on local concerns and on tributaries where there are no Natural Resources Wales (NRW) data. Unlike other citizen science projects the data is being used by the Nutrient Management Board. An analysis of the results will be produced over the coming month.
Teifi Nutrient Management Board – The Nutrient Management Boards for West Wales have produced draft Nutrient Management Plans for the Teifi, Cleddau and Tywi catchments. These draft plans outline what actions can be taken to resolve the environmental issues facing these Special Areas of Conservation rivers. The plans are living documents, meaning that they will evolve through time. Actions will be assessed as changes are made and the plan modified to ensure it is effective. It is anticipated that the plans will be approved in early October and form the basis for action.
Teifi Demonstrator Project – NRW and DWR Cymru/Welsh Water are working with other stakeholders including Save the Teifi to submit funding bids to OFWAT and other organisations to secure funding to support innovative actions to resolve the issues facing the Teifi. NRW and DC/WW are already investing funds to improve water quality but they are supporting the grant applications to accelerate the rate of improvement.
Do you want to do something about the state of the river Teifi and become a citizen scientist, help West Wales Rivers Trust to collect information and become familiar with your local river or tributary? You can !
First download ‘Arcgis Survey123’ app, then scan this QR code with your phone camera. Next, survey the rivers in west Wales any time you visit. You can document what you see concerning the water quality, habitat, or invasive species, and take note of wildlife spotted too. This is a vital step towards improving the state of the rivers, and the information will be sent to West Wales Rivers TrustFrom a FB post by Moira Williams:
Our citizen science project on the Teifi is off the ground!
Thanks to all those who have so far expressed an interest in getting involved. Training is currently under way and the aim is to have the kits stationed at set places along the length of the river for use by individuals and groups for regular testing of set spots.
There is an app for logging data too set up by the wonderful team at West Wales Rivers Trust.
The plan is to work in tandem with Ceredigion council and the live monitoring positions they have in place along the river.
Here is the link to the Small world theatre events 9 to 11 August created as part of this Esmee funded project
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
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
Meeting Notes from January 2024 Â (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 – ÂŁ2000. 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 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.
CITIZEN SCIENCE TRAINING
Here is the poster for the West Wales Rivers Trust (WWRT) visual water quality monitoring training and outfall safari session. Planned for Wednesday 5th June 10-14:00.
Meet at Cenarth Falls Resort at Phat Forks restaurant for the classroom session before heading out for a loop walk round the village and river to identify water quality impacts, outfalls and put survey training into action.
Parking is available free at Cenarth Falls Resort.
Anyone wanting more info can get in touch Nathaniel at WWRT directly:Â Nathaniel@westwalesriverstrust.org
This project is kindly supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation & Dwr Cymru’s Citizen Science Fund.
If you could share the word amongst your contacts and socials it would be much appreciated
CITIZEN SCIENCE TRAINING
Here is the poster for the West Wales Rivers Trust (WWRT) visual water quality monitoring training and outfall safari session. Planned for Wednesday 5th June 10-14:00.
Meet at Cenarth Falls Resort at Phat Forks restaurant for the classroom session before heading out for a loop walk round the village and river to identify water quality impacts, outfalls and put survey training into action.
Parking is available free at Cenarth Falls Resort.
Anyone wanting more info can get in touch Nathaniel at WWRT directly: Nathaniel@westwalesriverstrust.org
This project is kindly supported by EsmĂ©e Fairbairn Foundation & Dwr Cymru’s Citizen Science Fund.
If you could share the word amongst your contacts and socials it would be much appreciated
The text below provides some clarification in terms of what the water quality project is aiming to achieve and who it is working with. It has nothing to do with NRW who at the moment would prefer Citizen Science was not involved. However NRW should be interested in the sonde results and it provides us with an avenue to convince them that Citizen Science has a place in collecting basic data. The Council and Nutrient Management Board is reaching out for support from Citizen Scientists to increase the spread of measurements and to assess the impact future changes may bring.
Citizen Science in Collaboration with Ceredigion County Council and the West Wales Nutrient Management Board
The Save the Teifi Group have been invited by the West Wales Nutrient Management Board Technical Advisory Group to be involved in water quality monitoring of the Afon Teifi. Ceredigion County Council has secured funds to install 4 mobile high quality water monitoring sondes along the Afon Teifi. These aim to monitor a variety of parameters including phosphates in real time at various sites along the river. The council have also purchased kits to support Citizen Science. They would like these kits to be used to take measurements at other sites and in particular on tributaries so that the following can be achieved:-
a) A set of baseline measurements of water quality are taken at a far higher density than currently achieved.
b) Water quality along tributaries and the main river are taken
c) Citizen Science can help to identify potential problem sections of the river and its tributaries which can then be monitored by using the mobile high quality sondes.
d) Modifications to land use and point pollution sources can be assessed to determine if positive changes are being achieved.
e) The data will be freely available and Citizen Scientists will be encouraged to help in the analysis
The collaboration is attempting to ensure that a wide coverage of water quality is achieved and that the results can identify possible pollution sources and inform changes that try to improve water quality. The Citizen Scientists will be asked to take some measurements near the sonde sites to ensure their results are comparable with the high quality results. They also may be asked to monitor specific sections of the river and its tributaries so pollution sources can be identified and actions assessed.
Citizen Scientists with appropriate skills will also have the opportunity to analyse the data that is being collected in real time to report issues and identify patterns.
The data being collected by the Council will be the most detailed so far collected along the river and should significantly add to our understanding of selected nutrients in the system. Given the sondes will take numerous measurements every hour for an extended time period it will be far in excess of the measurements taken by NRW. It is anticipated that the monitoring system will hopefully be enhanced when Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water install their monitoring sondes above and below their assets in 2025.
Volunteers Sought to Support Teifi Citizen Science Projects
The community meetings held last year directed the Save the Teifi steering group to establish Citizen Science projects aimed at monitoring water quality and enhancing the health of the river. The steering group has been working with other stakeholders to secure funds to support the projects and ensure that the results will be utilised by relevant bodies and policy makers. Two collaborative projects have been established that will collect data from the Teifi and its tributaries. The Citizen Science elements of the projects are summarised as (with further details provided below):-
- Outfall Safari – In collaboration with West Wales River Trust – involves visual monitoring and photographic recording of outfalls and environmental issues.
- Water Quality Monitoring – In collaboration with Ceredigion County Council and the Teifi Nutrient Management Board- involves water quality testing of samples at the river side and recording other environmental issues.
We are seeking volunteers to be involved in these projects, ideally in both. If you are interested then please send an email to  volunteer@teifi.one. It would be helpful if you could outline where you are based along the river and/or its tributaries, whether you are interested in a particular project or both and if you are willing for us to pass your email details onto West Wales River Trust so they can organise training for the Outfall Safari project.
Outfall Safari Project
In collaboration with West Wales River Trust
The project involves recording visual information  supported by photographs about the location and nature of outfall pipes that enter a river or stream. Additional information about the location of invasive plant species, potential sediment inputs and evidence of pollution can also be noted. The information can be recorded via an app on a mobile phone and training will be provided. The project can be completed whilst undertaking a walk by a river or stream and new information (e.g. evidence of a pollution incident) can be added about the same stretch of river.
This Citizen Science activity is part of a larger project that involves developing a People’s Plan for the Teifi and broadening the communities understanding of the issues facing the river through engagement via local Primary Schools
Water and Environmental Quality Monitoring
In collaboration with Ceredigion County Council and the Teifi Nutrient Management Board.
Ceredigion County Council has secured funds to install 4 mobile high quality water monitoring sondes along the Afon Teifi. These aim to monitor a variety of parameters including phosphates in real time at various sites along the river. The council have also purchased kits to support Citizen Science. They would like these kits to be used to take measurements at other sites and in particular on tributaries so that the following can be achieved:-
a) A set of baseline measurements of water quality are taken at a far higher density than currently achieved.
c) Citizen Science can help to identify potential problem sections of the river and its tributaries which can then be monitored by using the mobile high quality sondes.
d) Modifications to land use and point pollution sources can be assessed to determine if positive changes are being achieved.
e) The data will be freely available and Citizen Scientists will be encouraged to help in the analysis
The collaboration is attempting to ensure that a wide coverage of water quality is achieved and that the results can identify possible pollution sources and inform changes that try to improve water quality. The Citizen Scientists will be asked to take some measurements near the sonde sites to ensure their results are comparable with the high quality results. They also may be asked to monitor specific sections of the river and its tributaries so pollution sources can be identified and actions assessed.
Citizen Scientists with appropriate skills will also have the opportunity to analyse the data that is being collected in real time to report issues and identify patterns.
The data being collected by the Council will be the most detailed so far collected along the river and should significantly add to our understanding of selected nutrients in the system. Given the sondes will take numerous measurements every hour for an extended time period it will be far in excess of the measurements taken by NRW.
Llais yr Afon Project (Esmee Funded)
We have received the start up documents from WWRT for the Esmee Fairburn Project – it will have a start date in March.
Here is some of the salient information:
A reminder of the organisations involved:
- West Wales Rivers Trust (“WWRT”) acting as the “Lead Partner”
- Ffynnone Community Resilience (representing the “Save the Teifi” group)
- Small World Theatre
- spacetocreate
Here is a table of how the Esmee grant money is distributed:
Here is a Gant Chart of the Project Plan:
See this link for a larger version:
https://www.teifi.one/resources/about-the-teifi/the-esmee-project
More details and how to get involved will be forthcoming as soon as possible.
See… https://afonyddcymru.org/get-involved/
The “Citizen Science” movement has expanded significantly in the past few years in Wales. People concerned with the state of their local streams have been eager to get involved in river restoration and protection, anxious to do what they can to help resolve issues of water quality and biodiversity loss.
As a result, citizen science groups have been emerging across Wales. Their volunteer members undertake various activities from water sampling, litter clearance and issue reporting.
The regional Welsh river trusts all have their own citizen science or other volunteer initiatives. If you would like to help and to join them the links to the various trusts are below. Often, no prior experience is needed and they will provide the training, equipment and guidance.
Other ways to get involved….
Spotting and Reporting River Pollution.
Do you regularly walk along your local river? Can you spot pollution? We have a simple guide: https://afonyddcymru.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/What-you-can-do-to-prevent-pollution.pdf for spotting pollution and what to do.The Great River Watch
In September 2023 a new app will be launched across the UK which will allow anyone to report anything they come across when walking next to a river. See here:Â https://afonyddcymru.org/big-river-watch/ for more information.
