RIVERKEEPERS from Stockbridge, who conducted a live kit sampling of the River Test at Southern Water’s outflow pipes, said the ammonia and phosphate levels are “dangerously” high.

The kit sampling and the river fly sampling were done at Fullerton’s combined sewage outflow following a protest on Monday, March 18, held by hundreds of people in front of the treatment plant to voice their concerns over Southern Water discharging wastewater into the River Test.

The two riverkeepers took water from the river in a bottle and conducted a test for ammonia, nitrate, and phosphate.

It was measured using Hanna Colorimeter devices.

“The ammonia and phosphate levels are really really high – dangerously high – and that’s why invertebrates and fish are dying. It’s just unacceptable,” said the riverkeepers.

Since Southern Water allegedly started pumping untreated water into the river, investigations by Angling Trust, The Test and Itchen River Association and other local groups into the water have shown heavy sewage fungus is smothering the riverbed and plants.

The Test and Itchen River Association executive director Paul Vignaux said the sewage pumping has severely impacted nature.

He said: “There’s no weed growing as it’s been smothered. This will kill off our invertebrates. They are deprived of oxygen.

“The reason we do these samplings is because the Environment Agency doesn’t do enough of it.

“I think there has been a four-fold reduction in EA river sampling in the last six years because they have been hollowed out by austerity. No money and they are not doing their job.”

A landowner near the outflow pipes also claimed he could see lumps of faecal matter and toilet tissues coming down the pipes to River Test.

He said: “I have lived here since 1980 and I can say it’s off the scale this year. The water company is not even acknowledging it as an incident.”