| Description
The River Eden is a tributary of the River Medway in Kent. It rises south of Caterham and flows eastward through the Wealden clay to join the River Medway near Penshurst. Its main tributaries are the Gibbs Brook, Eden Vale Stream, Eden Brook, and the Felbridge Water. The Eden catchment is largely rural and agricultural although much of the dairy farming which predominated has now declined and has been replaced by mixed farming. The sampling point is east of Penshurst in a flat valley surrounded by agricultural land which is not wooded, and is upsteam of the sluice where the river is slow flowing. There is no industry in the area. Water quality in the Eden is mainly classified as General Quality Assessment (GQA) Class C, although the headwaters near Oxted are Class D. The river receives treated sewage effluent from two Southern Water Services Limited Sewage Treatment Works (STW), serving Edenbridge and Oxted repectively; the stretches receiving these effluents are both subject to EC Urban Water Treatment "Sensitive Waters" investigations. There are other much smaller private sewage treatment works throughout the catchment. The river and its tributaries support coarse fisheries. Average flows at Penshurst range from 3.909 cumecs in January to 0.485 cumecs in July. |
