Why are British rivers Brown?

In 2022, across England, according to the Environment Agency (EA), raw sewage was pumped into waterways via combined sewer overflows (CSOs) for 1.75 million hours – 825 times a day on average. Images of visibly brown waters caused unambiguously by sewage have lately been captured across the UK.



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Almost all of the UK's waterways are now considered too polluted to swim in. A 2022 House of Commons Committee report on the state of UK rivers concluded that no river in England was free from chemical contamination. Only 14 per cent of English rivers, it added, had a 'good' ecological status.

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The cleanest river in the United States is the Chattahoochee River. This river starts in the mountains of north Georgia and flows through the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Chattahoochee is one of the few rivers in the country that is still safe to swim in and fish in.

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The dark color occurs when high concentrations of phytoplankton (microscopic algae) or colored dissolved organic matter in the water absorb the blue light.

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