Re the algae from WUF's Simon Evans. Seems to me they need a little more than judicious legal pressure.  If they are polluters then they should be prosecuted.
Seems to be no algae discolouration in the Ithon at all. Another 'red herring perhaps'.  More funding needed to investigate further perhaps.  Me - a sceptic- well yes.


Heavy rain forecast for Monday and next week many rescue the problem - at least for a while.

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QUOTE
"A distinction needs to be made. Much of the problem with poultry in Radnor is run off from free range eggs range areas..yes the things we all buy so happily in the supermarket...combined with a farming culture that sees rivers as a conduit for waste.

The really telling fact is that P levels fall as you you down the Wye. The highest P levels should be at the bottom of the river. In the Wye we now find them at the top of the Ithon (used to be in the lower Lugg).

The solution lies within the following actions:
- Promote the good farmers
-Tighten regulations of the bad farmers
-Get the planners to act responsibly and enforce planning conditions

This can be delivered through multi partner catchment working with some judicious legal pressure. WUF and partners work in Herefordshire is the national exemplar of this. We need to redouble our efforts to get this working in Wales"

WUF News Update Friday, 2nd June 2017 It's been a typically warm May so far: a few blazing hot days but quite a few dull ones and a few attempts at rain, with the odd localised heavy burst. Shorts are not yet essential wear so why is it that the river Wye is suffering a howler of an algal bloom in only moderate temperatures? Obviously, the low flows we are currently experiencing play a significant part - the longer it takes for algae to move downriver the more times they can divide and multiply. Low flows also mean less dilution of any 'additives'. In addition, the river is more vulnerable to high temperatures, up to 19C (68F) being recorded at Redbrook below Monmouth. Algal blooms are not uncommon in the lower end of the catchment but what worries us at WUF is that the middle and even the upper river at Llanstephan are showing the characteristic signs of darkening waters as the day progresses. The middle river has a visibility of no more than 12". Excess phosphate (P) levels are the cause of the blooms, in that they would not occur without unnaturally high amounts of this essential nutrient. Because the Wye (Usk, Tywi and Teifi too) are Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) there are specified maximum levels of phosphate, fixed so that these events don't occur! Both the Habitats and Water Framework Directives (to which we are still signed up) specify a "no deterioration" clause. You don't have to be a scientist to know that deterioration has happened, but why? There are two main sources of P: sewerage systems/septic tanks and agriculture. Through the work of the Wye Catchment Partnership, Herefordshire farmers have reduced their losses of P to rivers by up to 40%. Also, Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water have just spent £1M reducing P output from Rotherwas Sewage works in Hereford by around 5%. However, a combination of light touch regulation of poor farming practices by Welsh Government and its agencies along with an 'explosion' in the number of poultry units in Powys has meant an increase in P levels in the upper Wye catchment. Each poultry unit has been contested by Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, whose chief executive, Julian Jones has been extremely active. WUF has also been active in promoting best practice and investigation has revealed that although there are controls on units over a certain size, many, if not most, are built just below that size. Worse still, there seems to be little done to ensure that planning conditions are adhered to or they are operated correctly. A recent FOI request reveals that Powys Council has taken no consideration of the cumulative effects of the many units in the planning process, which is somewhat contradictory to the requirements of the Directives.