Key documents and Resources
For a detailed outline of our Phase 3 monitoring programme, please visit our Phase 3 Water Quality Monitoring Outline (2025).
If you’re looking for our up-to-date monitoring sites, please visit Phase 3 Monitoring Sites for an interactive map of our sites including coordinates and reasons for monitoring.
If you’d like to see our Phase 3 testing results to date, please visit either Friends of the Dart Phase 3 Results to access the raw data, or Site Plots to see the plotted data for each monitoring site.
Interested in how we’re collecting samples and analysing them for E. coli? Please see our Standard Operating Procedures for a detailed outline of our monitoring methods.
Is it safe to swim in the River Dart?
This is a question commonly asked by our community who are often concerned about the water quality in the River. While the data collected by Friends of the Dart helps us understand bacterial levels, we are not testing for other harmful chemicals or toxins. Measuring E. coli levels can provide insight into faecal pollution in the River, which may come from sources such as sewage treatment works, agricultural runoff, leaking septic systems and pipes, and animal waste.
However, many other pollutants are not detected by our routine tests — including heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, pharmaceuticals, and microplastics.
While our monitoring data can highlight patterns and hotspots of faecal contamination - providing accountability and transparency to enable the progression of remedying pollution issues - it cannot determine whether the River is safe to swim in at any given time. Conditions can change rapidly, and without testing for a wider range of pollutants, we cannot provide a comprehensive assessment of water safety.
If you are concerned about the relative risk of swimming in the River on any given day, we would recommend that you visit the following links to help you make an informed decision. Furthermore, before swimming in the River it is important to consider the conditions of the water that day, your swimming ability, and whether you have any cuts or open wounds.
WaterFit Live Storm Overflow Map
Click this link to access real-time information about which storm overflows are currently activated or have been activated in the last 24 hours. You can also use the map to learn when each CSO was last active and for how long.
Environment Agency Swimfo
https://environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles/
Click this link to access Bathing Water Profiles for the four Designated Bathing Sites, including information on their classification (based on samples taken from 2024), and water quality sample results to date, including Intestinal Enterococci and E. coli concentrations.