Aug. 6 (UPI) — The majority of English rivers, lakes and waters off the country’s coast remain in a challenging state with none free of chemical pollution and only 14% receiving a good ecological bill of health, the Environment Agency said Thursday.

Data from the first comprehensive testing of their health since before the COVID-19 pandemic indicated lakes were in the worst condition with ony 7% receiving a “good,” compared with 15% of rivers.

In a separate chemical pollution test, no body of water met the required standard, with toxic PFAS– “forever chemicals” — and phosphate from sewage and animal waste from farms the main concerns.

The safe limit for phosphate was exceeded in about 50% of rivers suggesting that a massive 10-year, $30 billion drive by England’s 16 water utilities to clean up the country’s water by 2030 was not delivering.

The EA warned it would take almost four decades to achieve good chemical status, when long-lasting chemicals should have degraded to levels required for waters to be designated as no longer polluted.

It said it was working to better understand chemicals in the environment and figure out where those affecting rivers, groundwater and water catchments were coming from.

The government and the Environment Agency are being investigated by the Office for Environment Protection, after the environment watchdog said the government would fall short, by a “considerable margin,” of its own target of returning 77% of waters to good ecological condition by 2027.

Environment Secretary Angela Eagle said the latest results showed fundamental reform across the industry was necessary but defended the government, which has only been in office for two years.

She said the government had brought in new laws making water companies legally accountable and presided over record levels of investment, and vowed to “drive forward a system that puts the public interest first.”

The environmental group, River Action, said England’s rivers were some of the “filthiest in Europe, poisoned by sewage from polluting, profit-driven water companies and by industrial-scale agriculture, including chicken manure runoff from intensive poultry units that rear tens of millions of birds for fast-food chains and supermarkets.”

Greenpeace U.K. said the crisis was a wake up call and urged the government to take immediate steps to stop chemicals getting into the water.

“Water companies must be made to take responsibility for their part, but pollution from agriculture is now one of the biggest drivers of environmental damage in U.K. rivers. It’s time for the government to work with farmers, providing proper support to rein in runaway use of fertilizers and pesticides and boost nature-friendly practices,” said Greenpeace head of politics Ami McCarthy.