Since its beginning in 1829, the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race has become the biggest rowing event of the year in England. The race now attracts around 250,000 viewers to the banks of the Thames River each year. Although the race will go on this year, the two universities have received cautionary notices based on a “Guidance on rowing when water quality is poor” issued by British Rowing, River Action, and The Rivers Trust. The guidelines stress the importance of “covering cuts, grazes, and blisters with waterproof dressings, taking care not to swallow river water that splashes close to the mouth, wearing suitable footwear when launching or recovering a boat, and cleaning all equipment thoroughly.” Also, the traditional practice of throwing members of the winning team into the river is to be curtailed.
Recent tests of river water in the vicinity of the race found an average of 2,869 E. coli colony-forming units (CFU) per 100ml of water. This is nearly 3 times the United Kingdom standard for inland recreational waters to be classified as “good”, and nearly 23 times the US standard.
The cause of the current situation is the dumping of untreated sewage into the Thames. This is particularly ironic in light of one of the iconic milestones in the field of public health. During the 1854 cholera outbreak in London, Dr. John Snow traced the cause of the outbreak to contaminated water being drawn from the Broad Street well. This was at a much earlier time, when untreated sewage was routinely being dumped into the Thames – and even well before the establishment of the germ theory of disease.
The local wastewater utility stated that “We have experienced higher than average long-term rainfall across London and the Thames Valley with groundwater levels exceptionally high for the time of the year. The overflows are designed to operate automatically when the sewer network is about to be overwhelmed, which then releases diluted wastewater into rivers, rather than letting it back up into people's homes.”