by Daniel Start
24.05.2010
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Want to take a sneaky dip this summer? Perhaps you’re planning a bold expedition, or just fancy finding a local beauty spot for regular swims – before you go wild swimming, you need to check it’s safe and clean. WideWorld asks the wild swimming expert Daniel Start, author of Wild Swimming and editor of the brilliant�wildswimming.co.uk, for his advice…
How to find out the water quality in your local river
Step one:�Identify the postcode of the area of the river where you would like to swim. You can generate a postcode from an Ordnance Survey grid reference or long lat reference at Nearby.org.uk, or from a street address at Royal Mail. You can find the longitude/latitude reference from a location on Google Maps by right-clicking and then choosing 'get directions from here'. The two 8 digits numbers after the are the longitude and latitude.
Step two:�Type your postcode into the Environment Agency's water quality map homepage. You’ll find the postcode box on the right hand side, under the words ‘Is your local river healthy?' Click GO.
Step three:�Navigate around the map (by using the arrow keys, dragging the map or zooming in and out) until you find a blue triangle on the river closest to your area of your interest. They are usually located every 5 miles or so. Blue Triangles represent the Environment Agency's river water quality monitoring sites.
Step four:�Click on the Blue Triangle you are interested in. Sometimes the water quality test results will be for a tributary of the river, not the whole river, and often the test will be done at the junction of two rivers. Data is provided for:
* Chemistry (A-F)
* Biology (A-F)
* Phosphates (1-6)
* Nitrates (1-6)
* Year of sampling
On this scale, A or 1 is the best, F or 6 the worst. Nitrates and Phosphates are not poisonous but....
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