Yealm Estuary to Moor

​Every 15 minutes the continuous water monitor pulses data to our team for remote storage and viewing. It informs us of the river’s chemistry and physics, and sends immediate SMS alerts of pollution events enabling the Yealm Responders, our citizen scientist team, to investigate with the aim of identifying the sources.

The continuous water monitor measures depth, turbidity, total dissolved solids, FDOM florescence, dissolved oxygen and temperature.​ You can see the resulting data on the dashboard below. Our Yealm Responders team has also been trained to take samples of hydrocarbons, metals, pesticides and surfactants for possible laboratory analysis. To assess faecal contamination, YEM has developed an “in house” capacity to quantify the bacteria Escherichia coli and other enterococci.​

All findings, data and associated reports are shared with Parish Councils, River Yealm Water Quality Group and River Yealm Catchment Co-ordination Partnership which includes all the major organisations working within the Catchment.