Deben Climate Centre

31/08/2026

We had a brilliant time at the Woodbridge Festival of Art and Music this weekend! Thank you to everyone who came to say hello, chat about local climate action, and even have a go at Climate Jenga - we had some of the highest scores we've ever seen!

29/08/2026

We conducted our first mid-month sampling and testing at selected hotspots and sites of interest across the Deben catchment last week. This is part of our move to conduct fortnightly testing at around 20 of the 70 monthly sampling locations.

💧Tidal Section
We sampled at Waldringfield, Kyson Point, Deben Yacht Club and close to Ferry Quay finding almost no E.coli at Waldringfield but quite significant levels at the Woodbridge sites. All three were above the 'safe bathing limit' so unsafe for swimming even at high tide. Phosphates gave a similar picture, with water users reporting significant algal and w**d growth in the area.

💧River Fynn at Tuddenham/Playford
Our sampling here has clearly identified an STW outfall pipe with very high levels of E.coli and continued elevated levels downstream. The Tuddenham results are concerning given that planning applications for new housing developments are being proposed nearby and the sewage works is relatively close to capacity.

💧Ufford
We sampled at Ufford Hole and recorded very low levels of both E.coli and phosphates. This is encouraging given the low flow and water levels after the weir breach. There were similar results at the Rendlesham, in line with or lower than recent trends for that site.

💧Wickham Market to Crettingham
Continuing the trend of the last few months Charsfield remains an E.coli hotspot, but encouragingly, phosphate levels have dropped back considerably and are now back well within the EA permit limit.

The Wickham A12 sample was also high in line with previous experience. Of greater concern is the Brandeston Bridge result as this site in usually close to or within the "safe" guideline, however in this sampling we found it to be much higher, suggesting serious local pollution to be further investigated.

💧Debenham
Just below the STW outfall, E.coli levels were somewhat lower but phosphates rather higher than earlier in the month, however the latter was still well within the Debenham STW EA permit level.

Read the full report on our website: https://buff.ly/Q1fX2Gm

21/08/2026

We are trialling a go-faster e.Coli testing machine over this weekend.

Samples will be taken at breakfast time Fri,Sat & Sun, from Waldringfield (beach and midstream) , Kyson Point, Honolulu and Ufford hole. We will publish results as soon as we see them, hopefully starting at lunchtime. The hope is to give more up to date info to all water users.

21/08/2026

I know we keep telling them so, but that’s not the point: isn’t it amazing what can be done, when we put our minds to it.


Rewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images show

National Trust’s Holnicote estate says restored wetlands and rivers offer proof of resilience to drought, wildfires and flooding

20/08/2026

Woodbridge CSO Spill straight after thunderstorm

After the dry spell ended earlier in the week, last night saw a thunderstorm across Woodbridge and Melton area - it lasted around 45 minutes and a local rain gauge reported only 8mm of rainfall. Hardly a major storm!

Nonetheless it was enough to trigger two Anglian Water Combined Storm Overflow (CSO) spills in Woodbridge as shown on the map; in fact all three CSO's released - the longest lasting 57 minutes.

Swimmers, kayakers, sailors and other water users should take extra care and our advice is to avoid going in the Deben for at least 24 hours. This again shows the relative lack of robustness of our waste water infrastructure.

14/08/2026

Another month has passed with almost no rainfall in Suffolk and for most of the rest of the East Anglia. An official drought was declared in July and river levels are at the lowest levels that many people can remember. Farmers are faced with almost empty reservoirs and abstraction restrictions; our sampling on Monday 3rd August showed more dry sections in the Deben catchment than we have ever seen. In spite of this situation, Deben water quality has held up in most areas.

💧 E.coli
Notwithstanding the very low levels of river flow and lack of rainfall, E.coli pollution in the catchment is lower this month than in July and in several previous months. Outside the areas close to Anglian Water STWs this is probably due to two factors - bright sunshine almost every day killing off bacteria combined with no rain and so no run-off from ditches.

Notable exceptions to the trend include:
• Waldringfield is now showing E.coli well above "safe bathing" for the third month in a row.
• At Kirton STW and at the small stream coming out at Falkenham Creek, we have recorded extremely high E.coli with Kirton STW at over 300,000 colonies per 100ml and Falkenham Creek at 30,000 colonies per 100ml.
• E.coli at some of the Fynn and Lark sites is still very high with our sampling teams discovering new sources in some small streams there.

💧 Phosphate
For many sections of the Deben phosphate levels remain lower than in previous months even though our sampling teams observed many cases where filamentous algal is present, coating w**d and river gravel with a brown/ green slimy deposits.

Our analysis identified two areas of significant concern on phosphate:
• At the Charsfield STW, the Phosphate level was 4.79 mg/litre, above the 4.0 mg/litre STW permit limit set by the Environment Agency. Previous levels have been between 0.5 and 1.5 mg/ litre, so the results suggest that the phosphate removal operation is out of balance.
• At Kirton STW, phosphate levels remain very high - close to 100 times the "healthy river" guideline - with tidal section impact also noted at Falkenham Creek.

By contrast, it is encouraging to see the Rendlesham STW phosphate level well within the new EA permit 1.0 mg/ml level for the second month after its early June commissioning.

💧 Nitrate
The presence of high nitrate in rivers, when combined with excess phosphate leads to algal and w**d growth, as noted above with the presence of filamentous algae in the non-tidal river and green w**d, reported by boat owners in the estuary.

Although nitrate levels have been fairly stable in the non-tidal Deben for around three months, they are still higher in several places than the guideline of less than 25 mg/litre. In the Deben catchment our dipstick tests show a massive difference between the AW outfalls with around 100 to 500 mg/ litre and fast flowing sections where nitrates are around 10 mg/litre.

💧 Ammonia
It is good to report that, with the exception of Kirton and Martlesham Creek STW outfalls, there were very few sites with any appreciable levels of ammonia pollution (over 1 mg/litre) recorded this month.

Readthe full report on our website: https://www.debenclimate.org/post/3rd-august-2026-river-deben-environment-monitoring-results

14/08/2026

09/08/2026

Get out your magnifying glasses and put your deerstalkers on; this summer we're looking for budding young detectives to help us solve a mystery on the Deben!

🔍 For younger detectives:
Follow our secret trail and find the letters hidden along the river to reveal the secret password.

🔍 For older detectives:
Hunt down and solve the cryptic clues belonging to each trail location.

Once you’ve solved the mystery, bring your finished worksheet to The DeCC to check your answers and collect your prize!

Prizes can be collected during our opening hours on weekdays from 10am-1pm and weekends 10am-2pm. Worksheets are available during these same opening hours or to download at any time on our website: https://www.debenclimate.org/post/become-a-deben-detective-this-summer

Find us at The DeCC, Ferry Quay, IP12 1BW.

05/08/2026

The current standards for UK sewage treatment are insufficient.

In our working testing along the Deben and other East Suffolk rivers we've highlighted just how inadequate many sewage treatment plants are, with the majority failing to prevent harm to water bodies, wildlife, and public health.

However we've also seen the good that can be done by upgrading these treatment plants. After a year of campaigning for improvements to the Rendlesham STW, Anglian Water have recently implemented phosphate stripping technology, bringing levels down far below any we've seen there previously — proving that investments in better technology, and holding the water industry to a higher standard, really does make a tangible difference on our rivers.

That's why at DCC we've signed this petition to ask the government to ensure new sewage treatment infrastructure meets higher standards, comparable to those in the EU.

If like us you want a better future for our rivers you can sign it here too: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/763721

We urge the government to review the regulations for new sewage treatment infrastructure and introduce new legislation to ensure high international standards are met; to safeguard people’s health, better protect all water bodies and reduce damaging long term impacts.

27/07/2026