We are building an independent historical record of water quality around the UK and use this as evidence to advocate for cleaner rivers and lakes. At the core is a continuous record, not one or two measurements a year that could be influenced by seasonal weather or spot pollution events. This historical record gives our rivers a continuous voice and really tells their story, rather than just a summary or one or two chapters.

Our testing is different to existing initiatives because we use the same methods used by the water companies, rather than more portable testing kits. This is important because we are providing the highest quality data available.

There are very few options for concerned members of the public to get independent and reliable data of the quality of the water in their lakes or rivers. Commercial suppliers do not make testing data public, which also prevents the current options from adding social value.

By purchasing a testing kit and collecting a water sample, you would not only get data that can inform your own decisions, but also contribute to building a comprehensive picture of almost real time water quality in the UK.

A vacuum flask with a sample chiller, an instruction sheet, a return shipping label, some gloves, a sample collection stick and a sample collection tube. Please keep the box that everything arrives in as it's designed to be sent back to us.

Full Circle Labs is a certified B Corp. We're experienced scientists that have been running a DNA sequencing company for the last 4 years and we've built the company around environmentally sustainable practices and adding social value. For years we've supported student-run organisations and charities. Now we want to go further, using our own scientific skills to have a direct impact ourselves. Water quality was the obvious place to start.

There are two reasons for this:
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The first is that direct to consumer testing providers don't do the testing themselves, they outsource testing to other laboratories. This adds a middle man that adds their own margin. The middle men also often claim that testing is done in ISO 17025 accredited laboratories to try and justify the cost, but ISO accreditation generally defines specific testing methods covered by the accreditation and doesn't just cover everything performed in that laboratory. If you read the fine print the tests offered by many of these commercial providers are not the specific testing methods that were covered under the laboratory ISO accreditation.
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The second reason is that many of these laboratories only perform water testing and therefore need to create a profitable business out of offering services in a single area. We have a set of scientific services that we offer, spreading out the costs of rent, laboratory equipment, labour etc. Even when we consider that, a major contributor to our costs is the postage. We've tried to be very transparent about this and have separated shipping out from the costs. You can also then see why it makes sense to buy two tests at once and you can add an extra testing tube during the checkout.

• E. coli
• Phosphate
• Total Oxidised Nitrogen

E. coli is used as an indicator of faecal contamination in water. While most strains are harmless, their presence signals that water may have been contaminated by sewage or animal waste and therefore potentially carries other harmful pathogens such as norovirus, Cryptosporidium or Salmonella. It is one of the most widely used and regulatory-recognised markers for assessing whether water is safe for swimming, paddling or other recreational contact. In rivers, E. coli levels spike after heavy rainfall as surface runoff and combined sewer overflows (CSOs) flush waste into waterways, making it a sensitive real-time indicator of pollution events.

We utilise a miniaturised most probably number (MPN) method for quantification of E. coli (ISO 9308-3:1998).

The recommendations for bathing areas are:
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Coastal Bathing Waters
Excellent: ≤ 250 count/100 mL (95th percentile)
Good: ≤ 500 count/100 mL (95th percentile)
Sufficient: ≤500 count/100 mL (90th percentile)
Poor: Sufficient standard not met

Inland Bathing Waters
Excellent: ≤ 500 count/100 mL (95th percentile)
Good: ≤ 1000 count/100 mL (95th percentile)
Sufficient: ≤900 count/100 mL (90th percentile)
Poor: Sufficient standard not met

Phosphate is a key nutrient that, at elevated concentrations, drives eutrophication, the process by which excessive algal growth depletes oxygen in the water, harming fish and invertebrates and degrading overall ecological health. In UK rivers, the main sources are agricultural runoff (fertilisers and livestock slurry), treated sewage effluent and urban drainage. The Environment Agency uses phosphate as a core chemical indicator when assessing river water body status under the Water Framework Directive. Monitoring phosphate over time helps identify pollution hotspots and track whether catchment-scale interventions such as riparian buffer strips or upgraded sewage treatment are having an effect.

We measure reactive phosphorus (P) which is generally in the form of orthophosphate in ground and surface water. We utilise the ammonium molybdate spectrometric method (ISO 15923-1:2013 and EPA Method 365.1) for this measurement.

Current guidance recommends that ecologically healthy rivers should not exceed annual mean phosphate concentrations of 0.1 mg/L.

Nitrate is a nutrient closely linked to agricultural activity, particularly the application of synthetic fertilisers and the spreading of manure. Like phosphate, it contributes to eutrophication, driving algal growth that depletes oxygen and degrades habitats for fish and invertebrates. Monitoring nitrate alongside phosphate gives a more complete picture of nutrient pressure on a waterbody and can help distinguish agricultural from sewage-derived pollution sources, since the two nutrients are shed in different ratios depending on their origin. Together, nitrate and phosphate trends over time help assess whether catchment-scale interventions such as riparian buffer strips or changes in farming practice are making a measurable difference.

We measure TON (Total Oxidised Nitrogen) as N and Nitrate by calculation. We utilise the hydrazine spectrometric method (ISO 15923-1 and EPA Method 353.1) for this measurement.

Current guidance recommends that ecologically healthy rivers should not exceed annual mean nitrate concentrations of 1 mg/L.

A large proportion of the cost of our test kit is the shipping cost back to us. If you buy the two test option you can test two different locations and send the samples back to us together, doubling the impact of the testing and adding two points to the map!

Bacteria take some time to grow. Expect a result within 36 hours of your samples arriving in the lab.

The measurements that we take capture the conditions at a specific moment in time. This dataset becomes more powerful as we collect more data and start to look at trends. For the most up to date data we allow you to filter for only data from the last 2 months and will introduce finer control as we scale up testing.

We perform testing using ISO and EPA methods, but we are not an ISO 17025 UKAS accredited laboratory (we're working on it!). ISO 17025 accreditation works on the basis of being accredited to perform particular tests and although other commercial suppliers claim that their tests are being performed in ISO accredited laboratories, we are yet to find a commercial supplier that is offering our tests as ISO 17025 accredited tests. We run all of our tests with controls and standards and you can get in touch with us if you would like to learn more about how we have validated our tests.