Volunteers are urgently being sought to take part in a new effort to address water pollution in Harrogate’s becks after years of neglect.

Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust (YDRT) has issued an appeal for volunteers to support its comprehensive surveying of the town’s Oak, Bilton and Crimple becks as part of an ambitious three-year programme to bring Harrogate’s rivers back to life.

Sarah Lonsdale, project manager for river enhancement at YDRT, said: “Surveys with the Wild Trout Trust have revealed major issues with urban pollution across Harrogate’s becks, with signs of failures in the surface water drainage network apparent across both Oak and Bilton Beck

“These becks which flow through and under the town have been neglected for many years.

Prof Jonathan Grey of the Wild Trout Trust surveying habitat on Oak Beck - Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust (YDRT) has issued an appeal for volunteers to support its surveying of the town’s Oak, Bilton and Crimple becks. (Picture contributed)

"Funding from Yorkshire Water means that we can now move to the next stage in our Harrogate Becks project and progress investigations into water quality failures by comprehensively surveying for misconnected outfall pipes feeding into the becks.

"But this a process which requires a lot of volunteer power and a method we call ‘outfall safaris’, which are currently the only reliable way of identifying and addressing pollution from surface outfalls in urban rivers.”

Surveying during dry weather helps to identify failures in the surface water network, such as misconnections that input foul waste into rivers, compromising water quality and impacting biodiversity.

All relevant information from the surveys will be passed to Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency to investigate the source of these failures and help to rectify faults in the network.

YDRT’s Sarah Lonsdale said people were unwittingly contributing to a problem not of their making.

“Decades of errors in internal plumbing means that appliances such as washing machines can be sending their foul water into the surface water drainage system, designed to take clean rainwater, and that flows directly into our rivers and streams.

“Effluent from polluted surface water outfalls can increase ammonia and phosphate concentration, damaging the water environment for wildlife.”

If you are interested in taking part in an outfall safari along Oak Beck; dates are flexible; email: [email protected].

Training will be held on Wednesday, May 21.

New 'ambitious' programme to bring Harrogate's polluted rivers back to life is launched