Utility Week

30 www.utilityweek.co.uk/fLeX C O M M U N I T Y from outfalls. is is a key indicator for misconnections and once they have spotted one, they score them based on various visual criteria in a mobile app. e data is fed to misconnection teams who then work with local authorities and householders to resolve them. Outfall safaris were originally developed by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and South East Rivers Trust and a guide on how to run them has been published by Catchment-Based Approach, the organisation set up by Defra to involve local communities in decision making. Outfall safari campaigns involving ames Water started on the River Crane and have since expanded to the Ravensbourne, Ingrebourne, Pinn, Hogsmill and Brent, with a total 142km of river assessed to date. Yvette de Garis, head of environmental regulation at ames Water, says: "Outfall safaris on the River Brent helped improve the river by a full status class under the Water Framework Directive. It is a hugely significant activity, so significant that ames Water has moved from supporting it through its Community Investment Fund, as a form of corporate social responsibility, to funding it as part of the operational business." Outfall safari work supported by a team including Severn Trent in 2017 focused on the urban parts of the Alfreton Brook and Oakerthorpe Brook catchments in Derbyshire. Volunteers photographed 101 outfalls and categorised them based on criteria such as visual discolouration, evidence of sewerage fungus and sewerage rag, odour and impacts downstream. e resulting datasets and online maps revealed that more than 25 per cent of outfalls were bringing some form of pollution into water courses. Severn Trent followed up the three serious 'red' outfalls identified and its consultants and researchers use the dataset to complement other studies. Categorising outfalls based on simple metrics can help utilities better target their ongoing research activities and there can be major soft benefits in terms of community engagement. Michelle Walker, head of GIS and data management at e Rivers Trust, who coordinated the project under Catchment- Based Approach, says: "We provide the local community contacts needed to get locals involved in solving the problem. If the community has helped identify issues, that is halfway towards getting them to fix it. It is part of a wider drive to get householders involved in sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDs) and rainwater harvesting to prevent surface runoff, which is causing sewer flooding." Citizen science initiatives can encourage individuals to be more responsible with their water use and how they use the sewer system, discouraging them from disposing of products inappropriately. " ose messages land much more effectively on a community that is already interested in their river and involved in these voluntary groups because they feel they have a stake in it," says de Garis. Water regulator Ofwat has been pushing for water companies to increase local community engagement, but in the realm of citizen science, focusing on that aspect alone can be detrimental – research must be followed up with feedback to ensure that participants are able to see the benefits. Loiselle comments: "If people feel that their 15 minutes spent doing the sampling was well spent and that someone is going to use the data as part of a programme, they are much more likely to participate again in future. A lot of utilities are jumping on the bandwagon wanting to show they are interested in the environment, but it needs to be part of an ongoing programme." F a k e s c i e n c e ? Citizen science has evolved to become a proven tool for public engagement with the ability to generate large-scale datasets, but questions remain over the usefulness and authenticity of the data and its potential to supplement and support established and legally robust environmental monitoring efforts. Water utilities have typically found the data useful as a coarse screening technique, to identify problem areas for more detailed analysis, but not as part of their regular programme of detailed research. "People need to be very clear about their expectations with data collected in this way; it is never going to be as good // We provide the local community contacts needed to get locals involved in solving the problem. If the community has helped identify issues, that is halfway towards getting them to fix it // Michelle Walker, head of GIS and data management, e Rivers Trust Volunteers look for polluted discharge from outfalls (Pictures: ZSL)

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