The Great River Aire Outfall Safari

In Winter 2023 our volunteers set off to build a picture of how pollution entered the River Aire in Bradford and Craven. Their findings should give us grave cause for concern.

By looking at pipes discharging into the river in dry weather, we were able to identify polluting discharges that should not be happening.

Overall, our volunteers checked 660 outfalls! These were made up of:

You can watch the story of our survey by clicking on the video below; scroll further down to link to a Storymap (opens in a new tab) giving the details of what we found and what we plan to do next and how you can help.

Now click on the StoryMap below (opens in a new tab) to see details of what we found, where it was, and how bad it was.

So what next - and how you can help?

In 2023, we walked under half of our catchment. We still have need to explore most of Leeds & many other urban areas.

Help to fund us to repeat this in 2024 with the Big Give Green Match Fund between 17 - 24 April 2024. Click on the image below to help us.

You can help in several ways:

Report pollution by calling the Environment Agency on 0800 807060

Become a river monitor

Don’t flush wipes & sanitary waste

Share what we found & demand change

We couldn't have done this without your help

We would not have been abe to do any of this without support from funders and volunteers. We had around 70 volunteers helping out, many from the following organisations. We thank every one of them from the bottom of our hearts and hope you will help out again this year.

Friends of the Dales

Friends of the Wilderness, Skipton

Cononley Wildlife Group

Friends of Silsden Beck

River Worth Friends

Keighley & Worth Valley Railway Environment Group

Bradford Amateur Rowing Club

Funding for the work came from the public via a Big Give crowdfunder (which we are repeating this year - see the link in the image above), with further support from The Aire catchment Network..

© Copyright Aire Rivers Trust 2020
The Aire Rivers Trust is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales No: 07464227 and a Registered Charity No: 1145609
Registered Office at: 38 Morton Lane, East Morton, Keighley BD20 5RS