South West Water has declined to meet a river action group despite bacterial pollution being “off the scale” in the River Tamar.

The group, Drip Drip, was formed last summer and is based in Calstock. Its members monitor the levels of E.Coli and Enterococcus bacteria which indicate sewage, by taking samples of water from the Tamar.

So far, the group have taken 20 samples from the River Tamar.

In October 2024 the water was “many times higher” than the Environment Agency would classify as the threshold for ‘poor’ bathing status quality, according to Drip Drip.

Ken Finn, from Drip Drip, said: “We’ve asked for a face-to-face meeting with South West Water to help us understand when they will implement their ambitions to be less reliant on the use of combined sewage outlets (CSOs), but so far, they have declined to meet us. It’s not good enough.”

After that first test on October 2024, the area saw one of the driest winters and springs on record so without significant rainfall and subsequent sewage spills the water tested within the bounds of ‘excellent’ bathing status quality.

However, on the group’s 20th test taken on April 16, 2025 at Okel Tor, they described the scale of E.coli and Enterococcus as “truly off the scale” after a spell of wet weather which apparently flushed sewage into the river.

Drip Drip says it is committed to continue monitoring for pollution events and engaging with South West Water.

A spokesperson for SWW said: “We are engaging with Drip Drip as part of our work to improve water quality in the River Tamar and we have invited them to share their questions so we can respond to them directly.

“We engage with community interest groups through a variety of forums including our Let’s Talk Water Seminar which groups can register to join at https://www.southwestwater.co.uk/about-us/what-we-do/get-involved/lets-talk-water

“In terms of our plans for reducing storm overflows, we are investing around £760 million over the next five years to reduce our use of storm overflows to fewer than ten spills per overflow, per year – a decade ahead of target.

“We were one of only five companies in the industry to reduce spills last year compared to 2023 and we know there is more to do and we are moving in the right direction driven by our determination to deliver on our customers' priorities.”

The figures for the samples taken from the Tamar near Okel Tor, just upriver from Calstock, have been taken weekly by the Drip Drip group from October last year up until the present.

On week 19 (March 31) the bacterial count of samples was E.coli 150 cfu/100ml and Enterococcus 42 cfu/100ml, which is ‘excellent’ under Environment Agency bathing water quality standards.

By contrast, on week 20 (April 16) the bacterial count of samples at the same spot on the river was E.coli in excess of 10,000 cfu/100ml and Enterococcus 20,000 cfu/100ml.

Anything greater than 900 cfu/100ml for E.coli and 333 cfu/100ml for Enterococcus is ‘poor’ on the Environment Agency’s scale.