More Citizen Science - Water Abstraction

Water, water every where, nor any drop to drink - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

Photo 1: Yazor Brook at Ledbury Road, Hereford (23rd Oct 2025)

Hereford's potable water supply is predominantly sourced by Welsh Water (Dwr Cymru) from the River Wye upstream of the city near the Welsh border. It is then piped to the nearby Broomy Hill Water Treatment Works (WTW) before distribution to the City's taps. Approximately 5-10% of properties in Herefordshire have their own water supply from boreholes, wells and springs.

During dry periods, farmers may need to irrigate their crops by pumping water from local streams, rivers, ponds and boreholes. The local football club, Hereford FC, until recently used expensive (and needlessly purified) tap water for pitch irrigation during dry periods; however, to reduce costs they had a borehole drilled and this provides most of their water needs. Unfortunately, during particularly dry periods, this can result in precariously low water levels in the local Yazor Brook (c.f. Photo 1 & Photo 2) - not good for the fish or the other aquatic life!

Photo 2: Yazor Brook at Ledbury Road, Hereford (12th Oct 2025)

There are limitations on how much water can be abstracted by landowners from the various water sources (rivers, boreholes, etc) but enforcement is weak to non-existent. You can make a good argument that facilities such as sports pitches, golf courses, community parks and residential gardens should be low priority compared to the farmers producing our food. And not many people would argue with that (hopefully). However, there have to be limits even for farmers because even farming cannot survive without help from nature.

One of my citizen science test sites (Yazor Brook, Three Elms Road) has a physical gauge board for measuring water level (see Photo 1 for an example). It also has an automated system for measuring river flow and river level and the results are posted on-line. While perusing the on-line data for my testing station, I noticed a series of regular spikes in the water level (Figure 1).

Figure 1: River Levels, Yazor Brook @ Three Elms (25/3/26 - 3/4/26)

The spikes in water levels were 72 hours apart, with maxima between 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock in the morning. This was definitely not a natural event. One possibility was an instrumental glitch in the measuring system but I discounted this because the phenomenon only took place every three days. The other two options were either an overnight discharge into the river or a daytime abstraction event that was halted overnight. After discussing this matter with a few other citizen scientists, the general agreement was that the spikes in river levels were the result of daytime abstraction followed by a cessation during the nighttime hours. I was informed that a borehole abstraction point was located less than 100 metres upstream of the measuring station and surrounded by arable fields.

Although the difference in water level from peak base to peak maxima was only about 2 centimetres, this change in water level is equivalent to a flow rate difference of about 20,000 litres/hour. Landowners are allowed to extract 20,000 litres/day without a permit. Higher abstraction rates require a permit and I suspect the farmer in this case does have the necessary permit.

We are currently in a dry period with water levels in the Yazor Brook in the 'normal' range due to the winter rains. Some water abstraction is not unreasonable without presenting any environmental/ecological issues. However, this situation needs careful monitoring.

Here is a more recent screen grab (Figure 2), taken on the 6th April 2026, of the Yazor Brook water levels. The brook level continues to fall and there have been two extra abstraction events; this time only 48 hours apart. Last year, water levels in early April were approximately 50% of the current level so things are not as dire as 2025. We could definitely do with some rain.

Figure 2: River Levels, Yazor Brook @ Three Elms (9/3/26 - 6/4/26)