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Swimmers warned of toxic algae at newly designated Thames bathing site

People told they and their pets should keep out of river at Ham amid anger over Thames Water’s treated sewage plan Swimmers are being warned not to enter the water at the first official bathing site on the River Thames, in south-west London, because of toxic blue-green algae in the water. The blue-green algal blooms are rare in moving water but are likely to be caused by the extreme heat, low river flow, and nutrient

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Ledger record
#752
First seen
19 Aug 2026, 16:46 UTC
Last checked
20 Aug 2026, 13:48 UTC
Version history
2 versions
Current fingerprint
82211d3576e0...365f86
01

Publisher layer

Recorded article metadata

Publisher
The Guardian
Country
England / United Kingdom
Source published
19 Aug 2026, 16:32 UTC
Source updated
No update timestamp supplied
Byline
Sandra Laville Environment correspondent
Section
Pollution
Source-supplied excerpt
People told they and their pets should keep out of river at Ham amid anger over Thames Water’s treated sewage plan Swimmers are being warned not to enter the water at the first official bathing site on the River Thames, in south-west London, because of toxic blue-green algae in the water. The blue-green algal blooms are rare in moving water but are likely to be caused by the extreme heat, low river flow, and nutrient
02

Change layer

Observed version timeline

  1. 2
    Revision observed

    Swimmers warned of toxic algae at newly designated Thames bathing site

    People told they and their pets should keep out of river at Ham amid anger over Thames Water’s treated sewage plan Swimmers are being warned not to enter the water at the first official bathing site on the River Thames, in south-west London, because of toxic blue-green algae in the water. The blue-green algal blooms are rare in moving water but are likely to be caused by the extreme heat, low river flow, and nutrient

    Changed fieldsbylinedescriptionTextcontentTexttags
    Version SHA-256
    82211d3576e0...365f86
    Capture SHA-256
    3a69fa5c07f0...ba3b77
  2. 1
    Initial capture

    Swimmers warned of toxic algae at newly designated Thames bathing site

    People and pets told to keep out of river at Ham amid anger over Thames Water’s plans to pump treated sewage Swimmers are being warned not to enter the water at the first official bathing site on the River Thames, in south-west London, because of toxic blue-green algae in the water. The blue-green algal blooms are rare in moving water but are likely to be caused by the extreme heat, low river flow, and nutrient pollu

    Changed fieldstitlebylinedescriptionTextcontentTextsourcePublishedAtsourceUpdatedAtsectionimageUrltags
    Version SHA-256
    3795e91273a5...da690a
    Capture SHA-256
    eca77abe956c...9a8dbe
03

Interpretation layer

Labels with declared origins

Not an adjudication.

Publisher categories are copied from source metadata. Machine signals report observable wording or format and do not determine truth, intent, ethics, or wrongdoing.

  • machine content-type Reported news observable-rules-v1 / 70% rule confidence
  • publisher category England rss-category
  • publisher category Environment rss-category
  • publisher category Life and style rss-category
  • publisher category London rss-category
  • publisher category Pollution rss-category
  • publisher category Swimming rss-category
  • publisher category Thames Water rss-category
  • publisher category UK news rss-category
  • publisher category Water rss-category
  • publisher category Water industry rss-category
04

Public response layer

Reception snapshots

No reviewed reception capture yet.

Comment counts and samples remain absent until a lawful, source-specific capture method is reviewed. Absence is recorded instead of estimated.

05

Evidence layer

Capture provenance

Capture ID
#153
Observed
19 Aug 2026, 17:31 UTC
HTTP result
200 / parsed
Raw payload
468,170 bytes, private gzip evidence
Collector
news-ledger/0.1
Public boundary
metadata and excerpt