Outdoor swimming is becoming a more popular sport, but England’s polluted rivers can make it a risky one. In response to this problem a local authority in Ilkley, a town in West Yorkshire, is pushing for a portion of the river passing through it to be designated an official bathing spot. Locals say that this is the only way to force the Environment Agency (EA) to act on the sometimes harmful concentrations of sewage flowing into the River Wharfe. The agency should indeed be pressured to act on river pollution. Should the spot win official recognition for swimming, it would compel the EA to run weekly tests on water quality in the summer, and to track the source of…

Source: The Times January 20, 2020 00:11 UTC