We hope everyone remembered to put the clocks forward for this morning. I suspect a few might have forgotten and there may even be those who put their clocks back in error; it happens. Tomorrow we will have come to the end of another monitoring season, with just one more data point to collect. We have moved into astronomical spring, and the trees are rapidly coming into bud. With sunshine today, I expect to hear the happy buzz of lawnmowers around the village. Water levels in the Tilshead catchment continue to fall, as does the water level in the River Till. Despite that, the water levels in the catchment remain almost 2 metres above the trigger level for an Environment Agency Flood Alert and it should surprise no one that the Flood Alert that began in early December last year, 114 days in total, remains in force and is likely to do so for a few weeks to come. A heavy downpour could reverse the situation in a few days.
Looking at the graph you can see 5 discrete wet periods over the season, which is higher than our average of 3. We finish the season with water levels only 3 metres above the 11-year average; the closest we have have been to the average all season. All in all, a very interesting flood. season, but its not all been rain.
Last week saw the publication of some other interesting, very but depressing information about the River Till. There are only just over 200 chalk streams in the world, with 85% of them in the UK. Of these, only a few are winterbournes with seasonal flow. In other words, the River Till is one of the rarest types of river in the world. Sad, then, that the sewage system that deals with the 17,000 or so residents of Shrewton, who between them produce 8.5 metric tonnes of faeces daily, is subject to groundwater incursion and as a consequence has to discharge into the River Till. That’s possibly as much as 1,000 tonnes of poop in their sewage system since the start of this flood season. Of course, the elephant in the room is how much of this found its way into the River Till, and how much treatment it received before it was discharged. The figures for discharge over the last 24 hours look like this:
It’s discharging almost continually over a 24 hour period. The River Till, which wends its way through our village and many of our gardens, is one of the most polluted rivers in southern England and one of the worst in the country. The Avon, into which the River Till flows, is the most polluted river in the country. The River Till has the dubious privilege of having the 94th most sewage discharges in the country. To put that in perspective, there are over 4,000 rivers in this country so the River Till discharges are in the top 3% of those. Hopefully, when water levels drop more in the summer, the River Till will get a brief respite. Wessex Water has chosen not to share live historical sewage spill data with the public, but if you are interested/disgusted by the fact that sewage is being discharged 6 days out of 7, averaged over the year, you might want to visit the Top of the Poops website and see for yourself. We hope that hasn’t put you off your Sunday breakfast!
Weather-wise, there is a lot of dry weather in the forecast until the end of April, with only the odd shower in prospect. There seems to be little likelihood of any prolonged periods of rain. Have a great summer.