There were 20 major incidents caused by livestock farms in England last year.
The Environment Agency gave warnings instead of prosecuting six farms.
Half of all farm pollution is linked to the dairy industry's waste.
Prosecution is a last resort for persistent offenders.
All farmers take their environmental responsibilities seriously and are taking voluntary action through industry-led initiatives to improve the water environment, according to the National Farmers Union.
Much of the environmental threat to rivers from farming comes from cow waste.
The UK's 2.6 million dairy cows produce up to 53 litres of manure a day. It's enough to fill Wembley stadium more than a dozen times.
If too much is applied to the land or if it rains a lot, the slurry can run off from fields or leak from badly-maintained containers.
There can be prosecutions for serious pollution incidents.
More than 1,700 fish were killed when he polluted the same section of the Frome.
The most recent event was taken by Sue in 2020.
She said the smell was terrible. I could see that it was dark. The next day, I took some videos of the dead fish.
She thinks the public doesn't know about the threat of farm pollution to rivers.
The government, farmers and the dairy industry are working together to tackle pollution in rivers.
Kate Hoare is a farmer that is located in Cornwall.
One of the UK's first covered slurry lagoons, which can capture methane for use to power her tractor, has been installed by her.
She says that every farmer knows the value of keeping it out of the rivers.
She said that it helps the soil, the grass, and the cows to produce milk.
"So, I think it's at the forefront of every dairy farmer's mind, how they can improve their slurry store and stop it from filling with rain and making the most of that product."
We are all good at recycling. We do it as farmers.
The Environment Agency inspects farms to make sure they are doing the right things. There were 693 farms inspected in the year 2011.
More than half of the checks found that farmers were breaking the rules.
The government is being sued by Wildfish over how it deals with water companies.
Nick Measham is worried about the threat posed by dairy farming.
He said that dairy and beef units are increasingly seen in the country. They have to send the slurry somewhere.
Farmers often see the river as an open sewer. It's really potent. It is more powerful in terms of its impact on water than human sewage is.
Until a couple of years ago, the chance of a farmer getting an inspection was about one in 200 years. That isn't a big incentive to clean up.
Since January this year, the number of inspections by the Environment Agency has increased to more than 3000.
Since April 2021, it has issued at least 140 warning letters and required 6, 169 improvement actions on farms.
Its focus was on high-risk locations, previously non- compliant businesses, and those farming sectors of greatest concern.
It said court action was used as a last resort when there was persistent noncompliance.
The catchment sensitive farming programme provides free advice to farmers to help them better manage their soil and water resources.
The NFU said that farmers had reduced pollution incidents by 75% since 2000.
Tom Bradshaw said that the NFU will work with the Environment Agency to communicate the farming rules for water guidance.
Arla, the UK's largest dairy company, is paying its farmers to work in more eco-friendly ways.
A spokeswoman said: "Our farmer owners are rewarded through their milk price for covering their slurry stores, using certain slurry spreading techniques and using a type of renewable energy that can be used to generate electricity and power vehicles."
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