EA Water Quality MCP Server

EA Water Quality

The Environment Agency Water Quality Archive API provides access to water quality monitoring data across England, covering rivers, lakes, groundwater, and coastal waters.

Data Model

• Sampling Points — ~65,000 monitoring locations with geographic coordinates, status, type, and regional classification.
• Observations — Individual measurements at sampling points: chemical concentrations, biological indicators, physical parameters.
• Determinands — ~8,000 measurement types (pH, dissolved oxygen, ammonia, heavy metals, pesticides, etc.).
• Samples — Collection events at a sampling point on a specific date.
• Samplings — Groupings of samples by purpose and campaign.

Key Patterns

• Use limit and skip for pagination (max 250 per page).
• Sampling point IDs (notations) look like AN-011262, MD-009632 — region prefix + number.
• The API returns JSON-LD by default. All tools request application/ld+json.
• Results are in member array with totalItems count and view for pagination links.
• Filter observations by determinand code (integer), date or dateFrom/dateTo ranges.
• Geographic search uses latitude/longitude/radius (km) OR easting/northing/radius.

Gotchas

• No standard JSON: API only accepts application/ld+json or application/geo+json, not application/json.
• BNG coordinates by default: Geometry uses British National Grid (EPSG:27700) unless Accept-Crs header specifies WGS84.
• Large dataset: 65,000+ sampling points, 8,000+ determinands. Always use filters and limits.
• Date format: ISO 8601 dates only (YYYY-MM-DD).
• Compliance flag: Use complianceOnly=true to filter for regulatory compliance samples only.