With river water quality so high on the agenda, the Upper and Bedford Ouse Catchment Partnership (UBOCP) is investigating different ways that volunteers can be involved in water quality monitoring to help identify when, where and why pollution incidents are occurring. One such method, most suited to urban areas, is the Outfall Safari. This technique was pioneered by Joe Pecorelli of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and uses simple observational techniques to monitor discharges from surface water outfalls into our rivers.

The approach was first piloted by the UBOCP locally on the River Ouzel in Leighton-Linslade in February 2023. A workshop was held on the survey technique followed by a field visit, where participants observed a variety of outfalls in an urban setting. Participants included local volunteers plus coordinators from other parts of the Catchment – the aim being to establish a local pilot project but also help roll the idea out across other areas. This initial session was then supported by a train the trainer event hosted by ZSL and the Environment Agency in November 2023.

Following these training events, two further target areas were identified: Bedford and Milton Keynes. The Bedford project will be coordinated by the Wildlife Trust BCN (Chloe Apicella) and the Milton Keynes project by the Milton Keynes Parks Trust (Alison Harrell). All survey data will be collected using the Epicollect5 app, which will allow the data to be exported to a GIS.

The Bedford Outfall Safari training workshop was held on Monday 11^th March 2024. It was attended by 9 volunteers, as well the Bedfordshire contact from Anglian Water and Jon Balaam from the Greensand Trust. In addition to the general training session, Jon was able to present a recent success from the Leighton-Linsdale project where a misconnection from a local house had been identified and the problem rectified. Jon had actually been intending to carry out a Riverfly survey, but high-water levels led to a change of plans. Untreated sewage was recording coming out of one the outfalls and both Anglian Water and the Environment Agency were immediately notified. The source of the pollution was quickly identified, and the house is now correctly connected. It was great to be able to share a local success with the volunteers.

The volunteers then completed a practice survey in central Bedford, including trialing the app. Several outfalls were identified (thankfully with no pollution incidents) and surveyed. The training was well received. The app will now be tweaked and volunteers will be assigned stretches of the river to survey. Any inaccessible areas will be identified during the surveys, which will then be surveyed by the project coordinators from the water (health and safety allowing). A similar training event is planned in Milton Keynes for Monday 18^th March.