Malmesbury River Valleys Trust

State of the River Autumn 2011

People are worried about the state of the Upper Bristol Avon between the sources and Malmesbury.

Sherston Parish Council, Malmesbury Town Council, Malmesbury Resident's Association, the Malmesbury River Valleys Trust, various fishermen and many local people have all raised concerns

Studies

Over the last 20 years there have been continuing studies of the river which have been produced and audited by Wessex Water and the Environment Agency, shared with interested people and then submitted to the Government.    A summary of the studies can be found here in a presentation which was made to the MRVT AGM earlier in 2011.  Full of information, it takes a little time to load- if you want to download it right click on the link.

Flow

The flow in the river is closely monitored and adjusted daily to keep it above minimum flows.  Simon Withey from Wessex Water explains

"...we check the river flows every day and will change the level of stream support accordingly to ensure we meet the minimum required flows. During wet weather when flows naturally increase we'll reduce stream support so as not to waste energy / groundwater.

The flow is supported by pumps from the  aquifer in the Lower Oolite at Luckington Stanbridge and Tetbury.  Pullling up  water from 60 metres below ground level is energy intensive and  Wessex Water needs to ensure that it is always possible to meet the demand.  In October Simon Withey reported a test...

... over the next couple of days is ...to confirm that we can achieve the design capacity of 10Ml/d that the EA require us to provide for stream support. We recently replaced a failed pump at Luckington and would like to test it against current low groundwater levels.

 

Gauging Stations

Fosse Way Gauge 

The river close to  the Fosse way crossing is constantly monitored by the Environment Agency.  Based on the readings here stream support at Luckington and Stanbridge  are also adjusted daily to ensure agreed  flow is maintained

click on this link to see up to the minute data on flows

 

Brokenborough Gauge

Readings taken here dictate how much water is pumped into the river in Tetbury.


click on this link to see up to the minute data on flow

 

 

 

Groundwater Levels

 

Rainfall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brokenborough Gauge

Biodiversity