Water Quality Data
The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales regularly monitor the Severn's water quality and publish a summary of the findings. Results can be difficult to find and interpret, however, so we have compiled them here (in what we hope is a more digestible form) for our stretch of the Severn.
Data are available for 1990 to 2009 on the Environment Agency web site and give information on the chemistry, biology, nitrates and phospates in the river. In general, the water quality picture for the wider area is good and improving. For Newtown the picture is best described as "could do better". You can see a summary of these older data by clicking on the link below.Environment Agency sample sites for the Newtown area are:
Environment Agency data on Water Quality
On the EA web site on the link above, look for the second table on the section of river called "Conf Mochdre Bk to Newtown Stw". This section is from the Mochdre Brook to the sewage treatment works and coincides with our area of interest. For details of yearly averages, standard deviation and sample sizes, click on "View Data" on the right of each year.
Click the back key after viewing the Environment Agency data to get back to our site.
River levels and flood risk in Newtown
For information on current river levels in Newtown, click this link to riverlevels.uk
For information on minimum, average and maximum river levels since October 2014 click here.
For information on immediate flood risk click this link to NRW Food alerts
For information on the 5 day flood risk click this link to NRW 5 Day forecast
If you want to look at the long term flood risk click this link to NRW Flood map
RSC Summary of Water Quality in Newtown
We have compiled the Environment Agency data and more recent data (2006 to 2015) supplied by Natural Resources Wales. Therefore, these pages contain Natural Resources Wales information © Natural Resources Wales and database right. All rights reserved.
Between 2013 and 2015 data collection of some of the parameters was discontinued. After 2015, more budget cuts meant that no data is now collected at these sites. The nearest sample site is currently at Caerhowel Bridge.
We plotted the available data on graphs by year to make it more comprehensible. All the available data points from Newtown are included, called Newtown Data. The annual mean data from Newtown are also plotted and compared with the mean annual data collected at Aberbechan. Where available, the older data (1990 to 2009) from our area are also included. For the detailed raw data from which the charts are compiled from 2006 to 2015, contact the RSC at secretary@riverseverncustodians.co.uk.
Click on any parameter below to view the charts.
pH Conductivity Biochemical Oxygen Demand Dissolved Oxygen Dissolved Oxygen percent
Nitrate Nitrite Ammonia Chloride Phosphate Copper Zinc
River Fly Larva
The RSC has joined a national scheme to evaluate the health of rivers by monitoring the numbers of river fly larvae. You can find more about the scheme by going to The Riverfly Partnership. We take our samples by the Half-penny bridge once a month. Click below to see the photo of us sampling or to see the complete data set.
Sampling fly larvae Fly data 2013 Fly data 2014 Fly data 2015 Fly data 2016 Fly data 2017 Fly data 2018
Fly data 2019 Fly data 2021 Fly data 2022 Fly data 2023 Fly data 2024
Sample Sites
Maps of the location of government sample sites of the Severn at and near Newtown. Click on the links below:
Rainfall data sample sites These are not collected in Newtown but sites nearby are shown.
River Flow data samples sites These are not collected in Newtown but sites nearby are shown.
Water Level data samples sites
Water Quality data sample sites