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.