Going Down the Swanee

The Environment Agency (EA) promised faithfully that 75% of English rivers would attain a rating of 'good' by 2027 (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/17/rivers-in-england-fail-pollution-tests-due-to-sewage-and-chemicals). The cateory 'good' is awarded in relation to 2 measures, namely ecological standard (determined by the organisms and plants in and around the river) and chemical standard (as assessed by the level of water contamination by sewage and chemical pollutants). The EA have quite some way to go to reach their 'target', as their own current figures are 14% of rivers reaching a good ecological standard and 0% of achieving a good chemical standard. There has been no improvement in English river standards since 2016. No wonder that an official of the EA recently floated the idea of unilaterally lowering the standards required to reach the criterion of 'good'. You need healthy rivers for a heathy environment but they don't seem to get that.