{"id":392,"date":"2025-10-18T06:40:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T06:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/safeavon.org.uk\/?p=392"},"modified":"2026-02-18T12:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:07:17","slug":"thousands-take-legal-action-over-widespread-pollution-of-three-uk-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/safeavon.org.uk\/?p=392","title":{"rendered":"Thousands take legal action over \u2018widespread pollution\u2019 of three UK rivers&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Almost 4,000 people in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/england\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">England<\/a>\u00a0and Wales are taking legal action over what they allege is six years of sewage pollution that has devastated three rivers, including the Wye.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In the largest environmental group action of recent times, 3,943 residents and business owners are seeking substantial damages from Welsh\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/water\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Water<\/a>\u00a0and the leading chicken producers Avara Foods Ltd and Freemans of Newent Ltd, alleging they are responsible for \u201cextensive and widespread pollution\u201d in the Wye, Lugg and Usk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The group wants a court to order the companies take remedial action to clean up the rivers, which are supposed to be protected for their importance to rare wildlife, including otters, freshwater pearl mussels and Atlantic salmon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The state of the Wye has become a symbol of the poor state of rivers in England and Wales, which are suffering from a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2024\/oct\/21\/uk-rivers-chemicals-stimulants-phosphates-nintrate-endangering-aquatic-life\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">toxic cocktail of pollution from sewage and agricultural runoff.<\/a>\u00a0No river in England is in a good biological and chemical state as a result of pollution. Salmon \u2013 a leading indicator of river health \u2013 have been devastated in the Wye with catches from the last five seasons being the worst on record.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/oct\/08\/thousands-take-legal-action-widespread-pollution-three-rivers-in-england-wales?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thousands take legal action over \u2018widespread pollution\u2019 of three UK rivers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost 4,000 people in\u00a0England\u00a0and Wales are taking legal action over what they allege is six years of sewage pollution that has devastated three rivers, including the Wye. In the largest environmental group action of recent times, 3,943 residents and business owners are seeking substantial damages from Welsh\u00a0Water\u00a0and the leading chicken producers Avara Foods Ltd and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sewage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/safeavon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/safeavon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/safeavon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safeavon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safeavon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/safeavon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":393,"href":"https:\/\/safeavon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/safeavon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safeavon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safeavon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}