NRW failing to use citizen science water quality data to fight pollution

Citizen scientists in the Wye catchment say they feel ‘let down’ by the Welsh environment agency Natural Resources Wales because their valuable data is going largely unused. 

Friends of the River Wye runs the largest citizen science project in the Wye catchment and has been monitoring water quality since 2020. Hundreds of volunteers test local streams and rivers on a weekly basis. The group works alongside the Wye Salmon Association and CPRE Herefordshire, as part of a Wye Alliance of citizen scientists.

The citizen science project was established in response to cuts to official monitoring by statutory agencies in Wales and England. In recognition that Natural Resources Wales and the Environment Agency had suffered budget cuts, the idea was for a volunteer army to step in and fill gaps in the monitoring network. Citizen scientists cover more areas, more regularly, than the official agencies.

The project was designed with guidance from Cardiff University and won a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Impact Award in 2023 for public engagement. Wye citizen scientists have regularly featured in national media, on television, radio and in newspapers. 

Yet despite all this attention and success, the citizen science groups have struggled to get NRW to make use of their data. 

At the end of last year, Wye citizen scientists fed into an NRW screening process and hoped this would finally result in a closer working relationship, yet the official response from NRW has dashed these hopes. 

Friends of the River Wye proposed quarterly meetings with the agency to review pollution hotspots and discuss what could be done to address them. In return NRW offered only an annual meeting. 

NRW said in its screening assessment that it was “impressed” by many aspects of the Wye citizen science project, including the strong focus on data quality. Nonetheless, NRW said it “does not have the resources to deliver all of the support, discussion and collaboration requested” by citizen scientists. 

NRW said it is already including citizen science data “among the evidence sources we consult in our work”, but that “not all catchments will be investigated in detail in any one year, so it may take time before we look at some of your data”. It is still not clear from this response exactly how citizen science data is being used.

NRW said that they will not use volunteer water quality measurements to direct their incident response. They only want volunteers to report pollution when they can see it or smell it. This means they are not interested in reports of high nutrient levels, no matter how high the reading or how long it lasts. 

Nicola Cutcher from Friends of the River Wye, said, “We’re beyond disappointed that NRW is showing a lack of interest in our findings of high nutrient levels. If we find high levels of phosphate or nitrate in a river, that’s an important indication that something is wrong. Ignoring these measurements means turning a blind eye to pollution”.

“After four years of trying to get NRW to use our citizen science data, we feel like we’ve been banging our heads against a brick wall. We feel badly let down and deeply disappointed by the agency paid to monitor and protect our environment in Wales.”

“We understand that NRW has suffered terrible budget cuts and is under-resourced, but we set up our citizen science project precisely to provide free people-powered water quality monitoring to help fill gaps in their coverage. The fact that NRW has barely utilised this incredible resource for the last four years is a managerial failure and missed opportunity. We’re baffled that they seem to treat our data as an additional burden, rather than a valuable resource to help them do their job better.”

Annys Webb, Citizen Science Volunteer Support Officer for Friends of the River Wye, said, “Every one of our volunteers who gives their time to measure water quality is acting as a guardian of their local waterway and doing an important public service. The quality of evidence they collect merits a clear path to investigation and action from the regulators. We will continue striving to explore with NRW how they can make full use of this invaluable asset to help clean up our rivers”. 

Last summer ITV programme Wales This Week ran an expose of NRW titled ‘Not Really Working’, which included testimony from whistleblowers expressing their disappointment and frustration with the agency for being overly bureaucratic whilst failing to protect the environment. 

Speaking in February last year at an event Friends of the River Wye organised in Monmouth, NRW Chair Sir David Henshaw admitted, “The public sector’s not great at embracing volunteering and actually one of the things we have to do is get others to help us do some of the lifting”. He cited citizen science as a classic example of this. 

Notes to Editors

Over the last four years, citizen scientists in the Wye Alliance have collected and analysed over 15,000 samples from more than 150 sites across the Welsh part of the Wye catchment. They have worked together to ensure the data is robust and accessible, with all three organisations collecting data to consistent standards and using a single data collection tool. The result is one of the largest citizen science databases in the UK, with over 40,000 records in total.

Both NRW and the EA were involved with the Wye citizen science project from its inception and invited to meetings organised by Cardiff University to co-design the scheme and its methodology. The EA made one donation to help Friends of the River Wye buy equipment to start testing and were quick to integrate citizen science monitoring into their assessments of the catchment. NRW has never offered any funding and instead spent years raising questions about the quality of the data, without constructively discussing what it would take for them to make use of it.

All citizen science data collected in the Wye catchment can be viewed via WyeViz and raw data is accessible via API.

Full response from NRW to the request to understand how River Wye Citizen Science data could be better used (names and email addresses redacted):

NRW Citizen Science Screening Outcome: Wye Alliance Citizen Science Partnership

Thank you for completing NRW’s Citizen Science Partnership Screening Form for the Wye Alliance Citizen Science Partnership. I am pleased to confirm that our review panel recognised your project’s potential to contribute to NRW's evidence base and agreed that NRW does have resources to provide support within the limitations set out in this document.

NRW’s point of contact for the Wye Alliance Citizen Science partnership will be ______. Please direct your queries about citizen science on this project through ______ in the first instance.

The panel was impressed by the detailed information in your application, which provides clear evidence that the guidance to which you were referred in the application form has been given due consideration. The panel recognised the strength of the project in several respects. The project has been running since 2020 and has a large network of volunteers. The application demonstrates the delivery of a range of benefits, making a valuable contribution to Wales’ well-being goals through public participation, education, and community engagement. The Wye Alliance has brought together and coordinated the work of several different groups. This is welcomed by NRW and adds significantly to the value of the data produced. The benefits of collaboration with Cardiff University, including the production of high-quality training materials, were also acknowledged. The raw data are publicly available, and project volunteers can see the project’s interpretation of their data. Additionally, the application demonstrates a strong focus on data quality.

Unfortunately, NRW does not have the resources to deliver all of the support, discussion, and collaboration requested by the Wye Alliance and other groups with similar aspirations across Wales. In order to use our limited resources effectively, we will need to focus on work with the greatest potential to contribute towards our evidence needs and to support NRW’s work.

Unfortunately, we will not be in a position to use volunteer water quality measurements alone to direct our immediate incident response. While reports of pollution that can be clearly seen or smelled are extremely valuable, the additional benefits to NRW from considering water quality data alone and/or setting trigger levels for water quality data are limited. We believe that there is greater potential for the Wye Alliance data to support NRW’s work in other ways. We would be grateful if the following could be communicated to all Wye Alliance volunteers. Citizen scientists’ ‘boots on the ground’ increase the chances of pollution incidents being detected and are valued by NRW. Volunteers should promptly report any pollution they can clearly see or smell to NRW’s 24-hour hotline at 03000 65300 or use the online form at Natural Resources Wales / Report an incident. This is very useful information. While NRW does not attend every reported incident, we assess all reports, and all incident information helps us understand what is happening in a catchment and in targeting our future work. For more information, please read our guidance note on incident categorisation.

Unfortunately, NRW is not in a position to use volunteer water quality measurements alone to direct our immediate incident response. Please do not report water quality measurements to NRW’s incident hotline unless you are also reporting that you can clearly see or smell pollution.

I am pleased to confirm that NRW is already including the Wye Alliance data from the WyeViz dashboard among the evidence sources we consult in our work to investigate and understand Wye catchments. However, the Wye catchments are part of NRW’s wider investigations programme, and not all catchments will be investigated in detail in any one year, so it may take time before we look at some of your data.

We welcome your offer to discuss how the Wye Alliance could support NRW staff in making use of your data. ______ will contact you separately to arrange an online meeting in March. To help us prepare for this discussion, could you please send the details of your EpiCollect API to ______ at ______@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk?

NRW has received offers of support and collaboration from a number of citizen science groups, and unfortunately, we do not have the resources to meet with individual groups on a quarterly basis. This is due to the work required from NRW beforehand to enable meetings to be productive (e.g., collating and preparing NRW material and considering any material provided ahead of the meeting by the groups). However, we would welcome an annual meeting of around two hours with representatives of the Wye Alliance as a whole, covering Powys and Monmouthshire and with a focused agenda that includes data quality and NRW’s use of the data. We suggest that the first such meeting take place in September. We hope that this will be a useful addition to the existing opportunities for dialogue at the Nutrient Management Board and the Wye Catchment Partnership.

We are reminding all citizen science groups that they have a duty to adhere to the guidance provided by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regarding volunteering: Volunteering: How to manage the risks - HSE. This will help them understand their obligations and best practices. We ask all citizen science groups to ensure that volunteers have landowners’ permission to access land and take samples. You may wish to consider providing your volunteers with a card explaining their role so that they can answer any questions from the public.

14 February 2025