Devon rivers cleaned with mushroom filters as water regulator backs scale-up

A simple innovation is helping clean up English rivers — and it involves mushrooms.

In Devon, bags of woodchips infused with turkey tail mushroom spores were placed at the bottom of a river to tackle sewage pollution. The mycelia — the mushroom's underground filament network — filtered out 80% of E. coli bacteria.

The results were so promising that OFWAT, the water industry regulator, has given Anglian Water nearly £2 million to roll out the approach at scale. A similar trial in Lincolnshire used the same method to remove 83% of phosphorous and 35% of nitrogen from agricultural runoff.

Joshua Mercer at Anglian Water described the fungi as a second line of defence alongside conventional sewage treatment. "If this work can have a positive impact on water quality, then it's benefiting everyone," he told the BBC. "When my daughter gets to my age, it would be great if people can just go and swim wherever they want."

The low-cost, nature-based solution could now be deployed across waterways nationwide.