Campaigners including Feargal Sharkey protested yesterday outside the high court in Cardiff where the judicial review brought by the group River Action is being heard.
River Action says a loophole in the law is allowing poultry waste from 25 million chickens farmed in the area to poison the Wye.
Charles Watson, its founder, said the loophole meant the river was almost dead. It has been downgraded by Natural England to an unfavourable state as a result of the mixture of pollution from agricultural runoff and pollution from land saturated with nitrogen and phosphorus.
"The largest concentration of intensive livestock production in Europe is farmed in the catchment," said Watson. "Twenty-five million chickens are produced in this catchment and we argue that the agency has not enforced the law.
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