Severn: Citizen science bacteria testing
Volunteers helped in method benchmarking, trialling different bacteria methods, and providing insights on bacteria levels across the Teme catchment
Co-designing and testing bacteria monitoring protocols
This CaSTCo project provides opportunities for communities to co-design monitoring programs and determine which tests to use alongside experts. The Severn demonstration catchment invited volunteer reps to work alongside the environmental charity, water company, and government to help develop and test new methods, comparing them for accuracy and ease of use. This has culminated in multiple ‘water blitz’ days, where collaborators collected data across the catchment to test using 10+ comparable water testing methods for both bacteria and water chemistry on a single day.
The context
Communities had questions about bathing water monitoring. However, there weren’t well-known methods for bacteria monitoring that stakeholder groups could effectively use and trust.
When the project started, there were no designated bathing waters in the Severn region. In 2024, a new bathing water system was designated for the Teme River. This means that the Environment Agency will test the water for bacteria, such as E. coli and intestinal enterococci, throughout the bathing season and will rate the water as “excellent”, “good”, “sufficient”, or “poor” based on bacteria levels. Only one site on the Teme is officially designated as a bathing water, but there are lots of other places where people swim. Many local people want to test bacteria in water because of their interest in river pollution linked with human health. When this project started, though, there wasn’t any guidance on which methods for testing for E. coli were simple, accurate, and affordable enough for volunteers to use.
The volunteer reps told the collaborative partners that they wanted to find an inclusive, accessible method for volunteer participation. They also wanted to make a difference to the health of their rivers. Organisational partners wanted to ensure any methods used were as accurate as possible.
Who
- Volunteers across the Teme catchment- collected samples, tested methods, conducted field testing for water chemistry, coordinated and gathered feedback
- Severn Rivers Trust – provided coordination, data dashboard, logistics, and data interpretation.
- Severn Trent – provided lab testing, set up IDEXX tecta trial, incubated Aquagenex tests, organized sampling, and provided guidance.
- Rivers Trust – provided funding for initial sampling, including a trial of Bacterisk & Aquagenex methods, plus support for data dashboard development.
- Environment Agency – provided close liaison nationally and regionally for inclusive and collaboration; coordinated testing for Aquagenex, Fluidion, and EA probes for comparison.
- Water Rangers: provided testing for the IDEXX Colilert method, chemistry comparison, and filmed the video.
Where
Shropshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire
10+ methods were tested from a single morning, allowing both a snapshot and a methods comparison
It was a truly collaborative process, thanks to resources of diverse stakeholders, from environmental charities, Severn Trent water, and the Environment Agency.
Volunteers were able to take a leadership role in feeding back what methods empowered them.
Partners beyond the Teme got involved too! The Rivers Trust helped with two methods, and Water Rangers helped test two additional methods using their equipment, with the help of a master’s student from UCL.
Methods
Over the blitz events, they have tested various methods, a list curated by both volunteers and CaSTCo partners.
Bacteria
So far, they’ve compared results from lab tests, IDEXX Colilert, IDEXX Tecta, Bacterisk, Fluidion, and Aquagenx. They’re also trialing the R-Card method in upcoming blitzes.
Chemistry
So far, they have compared lab tests with Hanna checkers (phosphates), Kyoritsu (phosphates/nitrates), Hach teststrips (nitrates), EA YSI Probe, and a Pen-type conductivity meter.
10 +
Methods compared
2
Volunteer Reps, ensuring citizens have a say throughout
300+
Survey responses in the first 12 months
Data collection
The Severn shares their data in reports and through their newly developed CaSTCo Teme Demo data dashboard (currently available to volunteers and stakeholders but to be made publicly available very soon).
The goal is to give volunteers a chance to see and compare their own data, have it part of evidence-informed decision-making, and add in other data sources. For example, they would love to add in other volunteer group data and find ways to make both data collection and its use more collaborative. Right now, volunteers fill in data on Survey123; once they have been quality-checked, they can automatically go up onto the dashboard.
Social value
When this group saw that it was partner-heavy, it determined a way to ensure it was considering volunteer needs right from the start. These volunteer reps come to steering group meetings once a month and have attended quarterly CaSTCo meetings to represent the volunteers. They have seen how impactful lowering barriers to volunteer integration has become: for example, they have helped with data interpretation, gathering feedback, and directly seeking out expert advice.
Demonstrating CaSTCo principles
This project exemplifies collaboration between stakeholder groups, including the general public. Because of the network of partners, there was buy-in from stakeholder groups like EA and Severn Trust to provide pathways for the community to collect samples and for the data to be a valuable part of the weight of evidence in determining when further investigation might be necessary.
Results and recommendations will be shared with the broader community in the near term, ensuring that others do not have to replicate these efforts.
“We are both active partners in each of the CaSTCo demonstration catchments and through our internal project. Bring that all together and ensure that there’s some standardization and therefore the use of that data can be much more tangible for those amazing citizen scientists who are going out and collecting it.”
– Lydia Ashworth, Citizen science coordinator for West Midlands, Environment Agency
“I think it’s a really good thing to find out about communities and citizen science and harness all the knowledge that volunteers bring. They know their rivers and they’ve got passion. [We can] look at techniques that can be reliable, accurate and affordable for volunteers, because not everyone’s got access to a laboratory.”
– Amanda Coffey, River Insights and Improvement Manager, Severn Trent Water
Supporting material
| About the event (Severn website) |
| Environment Agency’s page on Citizen Science integration |
| Water Rangers Community Water Lab |
| Severn Rivers Trust Project Page |
| Severn Water CaSTCo page (coming soon) |
| Methods Results Presentation (pptx) |
In the media
| BBC: “Meet-up for volunteers testing river water quality” |
| X Environment Agency Midlands: “Find out about our work with partners including @severnrivers @stwater on a citizen science project in the #RiverTeme catchment #Shropshire #Herefordshire #Worcestershire.” |
| Environment Agency blog: “Citizen Science in the West Midlands” |