The charity River Action has accused the government of failing to prevent chicken manure from polluting the River Wye and has taken the case to court. River Action has claimed that legislation designed to protect waterways have not been enforced. The Wye was officially designated as “unfavourable declining” in 2023 due to harm inflicted on its wildlife. A possible cause of its poor condition is the growth of chicken farms in the catchment area.
Farmers in the region must comply with regulations known as the Farming Rules for Water. These obligate them to avoid the introduction of fertilisers into waterways and ensure that fields do not receive excessive additions of fertilisers. River Action says that unnecessary pressure from farmers seeking to use excessive quantities of manure has resulted in nutrient-rich runoff polluting the Wye and its tributaries. To date, no Environment Agency prosecutions in the Wye catchment for excessive fertiliser use have occurred.
Chicken farming has significantly expanded in the Wye catchment area. Over 20 million chickens now occupy the region, which represents around a quarter of the UK’s total production. Chicken manure is a valuable fertiliser due to its nitrogen and phosphorus content. However, when this nutrient load enters waterways, it can cause severe blooms of algae that spread at the expense of other aquatic flora and fauna.
Technical solutions to this pollution problem exist, but they are costly to implement. Whittern Farms, a major chicken producer in the area, has spent £3m on biomass boilers that burn chicken manure, both to provide heat to the sheds and produce powdered fertiliser that can be sold around the UK. However, the farm’s manager, James Wright, notes the difficulty of making a profit in the face of low prices for chicken, though he believes such prices should be raised to cover the costs of managing chicken manure sustainably
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