test spot sign with QR code

Sponsor a testing spot

$1,500.00

GUILDFORD AND SURROUNDING REGIONS:

Thanks to the establishment of the Community Water Lab at ZERO Guildford, our volunteers are now able to test for E. coli at spots around the River Wey Catchment in Surrey and Hampshire. We’re testing every week, and we need your help to test regularly. 

Right now, it’s very difficult and expensive for communities to access tests for E. coli, the primary test used to determine whether recreating is advised (the national standard for inland waters is that rates should be less than 1,000 CFU/100mL). All that changes, thanks to the power of this community and local sponsors.

Sponsor a water testing spot for weekly monitoring for E. coli! Results will be posted on a sign near the spot so that those walking by can get the latest results. We’ll publicly thank you on the sign and in our lab. If you don’t have volunteers for your local spot, we can recruit volunteers to help collect weekly samples. Help us provide more information on our rivers to those who love them!

Want to help us expand further? Reach out to have a chat. We need lab sponsors to cover ongoing supplies and set-up costs and would love to have a part-time employee at the lab to help us expand our impact!

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Description

Water Rangers, ZERO Guildford and the River Wey Trust have launched a Community Water Lab, and we need your help to get answers!

The community-led lab is a first in our region and is designed to allow anyone to get answers about their local river on human health risks, namely E. coli. It brings together our already established water chemistry monitoring program with the ability to take samples for E. coli using a certified method (thanks to equipment and support from the University of Surrey) so we can be confident in our results. We’ll allow anyone from the public to use the lab’s services at a fraction of the cost of a professional lab. We’re run by volunteers!

We’ve successfully fundraised to set up the lab, and now we’re looking for support to kickstart our monitoring program at common swimming and boating locations.

About sponsoring

  • Sponsor E. coli tests at a recreational river location for a full year. We can offer site suggestions, or if you have a site in mind, we can check if it can work!
  • Volunteers will collect the samples on Friday mornings and bring them to ZERO for processing.
  • After incubating over night, results will be published Saturday morning and available online to the public and those visiting that swimming/boating spot.
  • You are welcome to join us on our testing days!

The benefit to you: You’ll be supporting a groundbreaking endeavour! You’ll provide the means to get consistent results for a community that needs this information. We’ll thank you publicly on a local sign, on our website, at events, in our impact report, and in our lab space.

It includes:

  • 2 testkits for community sample collection (can be customized with your logos!)
  • 52 E. coli tests (we will test less regularly in the winter, and instead take two samples during summer weeks to get more assurance on the validity of our results)
  • 24 chemistry tests 
  • Contribute to energy costs at ZERO
  • Publicity/signage*

Yearly cost: £1,250

This information is available as an A4 document here.

Locations that need sponsors:

  • St. Catherine’s swimming spot: sponsor needed
  • Guildford Rowing Club: sponsor needed
  • Dapdune/Guildford Kayak Club: sponsor and testers needed
  • Upstream/downstream of Slyfield (two spots): sponsor needed
  • Upstream/downstream of Godalming TW (two spots): sponsor needed
  • Peperharrow Lane, Godalming: sponsor needed
  • Ripley swimming spot: sponsor needed
  • Godalming Wharf: SPONSORED BY Occupational Health and Roar Outdoors
  • Byfleet swimming spot: SPONSORED BY Byfleet United Charities
  • Shalford Mill, Shalford: sponsor needed
  • Allee’s Meadow, Liphook: SPONSORED BY River Wey Trust
  • Radford Park: SPONSORED BY Small World Vets Liphook
  • YOUR SPOT HERE: sponsor needed

* Ideally, a sign will be installed publicly. This is pending council approval and a suitable fence/mounting space. If none is available, we will discuss other publicity options with you. An example of a sponsored spot and sign in Radford Park is below.