2024 Bathing Water Profile for Friars Meadow, River Stour
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Friars Meadow is located on the River Stour at Sudbury. The water can be accessed along the bank, where reeds have been cleared. This stretch of river is also popular with kayakers, paddleboarders and other recreational users.
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Babergh District
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Suffolk
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There are storm and emergency outfalls that discharge to the river Stour close to the bathing water, and upstream. These are designed to operate only during emergencies or heavy rainfall and to protect properties from being flooded by sewage.
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Modern sewerage systems have two separate systems, one takes foul sewage to sewage treatment, the other takes rainwater runoff through surface water drains to rivers, lakes and the sea. Misconnections occur when waste water pipes are plumbed into surface water drains instead of the foul water sewerage system. This can give rise to pollution when the waste water is discharged directly to the environment through the surface water drain. For example, a washing machine or toilet may be incorrectly plumbed so that it discharges to the surface drain rather than the foul sewage drain.
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There are no active pollution risk forecasts made at this bathing water. However any bathing water has the potential to be affected by a pollution incident and if this occurs a pollution risk warning with associated advice against bathing will be issued on this website.
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2024 Bathing Water Profile for Friars Meadow, River Stour
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2024-09-30
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2024-05-01
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Sudbury Water Recycling Centre is approximately 1.5 kilometres upstream of the bathing water. There are a number of other sewage treatment works in the upstream catchment.
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Environment Agency samplers make observations of litter present on the beach at every visit, this includes assessments of sewage debris, litter and tar.
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Friars Meadow in within a Catchment Sensitive Farming area. This is a project run by Natural England in partnership with the Environment Agency and The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It raises awareness of diffuse water pollution from agriculture (DWPA) by giving free training and advice to farmers in selected areas in England. The selected areas are called priority catchments. The aim of the advice is to improve the environmental performance of farms.
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The Stour is a large catchment, approximately 1080 square kilometres. The river rises in Cambridgeshire and, for the most part, forms the county boundary between Suffolk and Essex. It is a largely agricultural catchment, but the river flows through towns such as Sudbury and Hadleigh. Wardman Meadows and Friar's Meadows local wildlife sites are adjacent to the bathing water.
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Friars Meadow, River Stour
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Friars Meadow, River Stour
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Sampling point at Friars Meadow, River Stour
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587692
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52.03408
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0.73489
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240826
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Sampling point at Friars Meadow, River Stour
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p152 dT23 h59 m59 s
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2024 05 01 t00:00:00
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2024-05-01T00:00:00
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2024 09 30 t23:59:59
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2024-09-30T23:59:59
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2024 11051:1
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Seaweed (macroalgae) and phytoplankton (microscopic algae) are a natural part of the marine and freshwater environment. Below we note whether these have been recorded in quantities sufficient to be a nuisance.
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The majority of sewers in England are “combined sewers” and carry both sewage and surface water from roofs and drains. A storm overflow operates during heavy rainfall when the sewerage system becomes overwhelmed by the amount of surface water. The overflow prevents sewage from backing up pipes and flooding properties and gardens. An emergency overflow will only operate infrequently, for example due to pump failure or blockage in the sewerage system.
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Heavy rain falling on pavements and roads often flows into surface water drains or highway drains, ending up in local rivers and ultimately the sea. The quality of bathing water may be adversely affected as a result of such events.
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It is the Environment Agency role to drive improvement of water quality at bathing waters that are at risk of failing higher standards. It is natural for water to run off the land to the sea. Water quality at a bathing water is dependent upon the type and area of land (the catchment) draining to the water and the activities undertaken in that catchment.
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Discharges from sewage treatment works have improved substantially in England since the 1980s.
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