GOV.UK
Water quality
On this page
Services
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Check the quality of your drinking water
Your tap water should be clear and bright - water quality advice, reporting problems, how to complain
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Check the quality of beach and bathing water in England
Find out how clean the water is on beaches and in other bathing areas in England, and if there is a problem with pollution
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Application to use herbicides in or near water
Use this form if you plan to use herbicides to control weeds in water or on the banks next to a waterbody or watercourse.
Guidance and regulation
- General binding rules: small sewage discharge to a surface water
- General binding rules: small sewage discharge to the ground
- Groundwater source protection zones (SPZs)
- Cemeteries and burials: prevent groundwater pollution
- Waste water treatment works: treatment, monitoring and compliance limits
News and communications
- Environment Agency tells water companies to clean up their act and protect the environment from pollution
- Northumbrian Water to pay £1.179 million for environment offences
- Officers head to the beach all in the name of science
- Bottles of success for water filter business
Research and statistics
- Eutrophication risk in English rivers under climate change
- Northern Ireland environmental statistics report 2019
- Recommendations to inform a UK ocean acidification monitoring strategy
- River water quality indicator
Policy papers and consultations
- National FCERM strategy: Strategic Environmental Assessment scoping report
- Bathing waters: removing Allonby South from the list of designated bathing waters
- River basin planning: working together
- The Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water (England) Regulations 2015
- Urban waste water treatment: updated sensitive areas maps 2019