By Steffan Messenger
The Environment Correspondent of the British Broadcasting Corporation in Wales.
Afonydd Cymru is the image source.
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There wasn't enough money to investigate incidents of river pollution.
River groups want a review of how water pollution incidents are investigated.
They said that thousands of small-scale spills are not being looked into.
The leaked document suggested staff at the Environment Agency should ignore low-impact pollution events.
Natural Resources Wales said that incident management was a crucial part of its work.
The UK Rivers' Trust described the leak of an internal briefing on how to handle pollution as an "appalling scandal".
According to The Guardian, bosses have shown support for "no response" to low-impact environmental incidents because of a lack of funding.
A change in culture at the watchdog is needed after it was accused of taking a similar approach for years.
The majority of low-level impact incidents would not merit attendance by officials, nor an immediate response, according to a guidance note from NRW's website.
Some examples of river pollution cases that fall into this category include those that cause minor loss of fish habitat or kill a small number of fish from species that are not rare.
Minor public health problems, including a few individuals with temporary sore throats, are the same as incidents that give rise to them.
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Gail Davies-Walsh said that thousands of incidents are not being investigated.
It is possible that spills that kill one or two adult salmon or sea trout could be classified as low impact.
The NRW has introduced new rules that will force fishermen to throw back their catch for a decade because of low fish stocks.
The document states that media interest or a risk to NRW's reputation should be considered when deciding on a response.
Gail Davies-Walsh, chief executive of Afonydd Cymru, which represents Wales' rivers' trusts, said that the approach that theEA are moving to is not different to what's already taking place in Wales.
Thousands of low-level incidents are either not being investigated or are being looked at far down the line after the event, she said.
Getting an accurate picture of the scale of agricultural pollution, sewage spills and business waste affecting Wales' rivers is very difficult.
29% of the incident reports were related to water pollution.
Smaller cases are not being considered a major issue, but they are having more of an effect on our rivers than any one big incident.
Ms Davies-Walsh agreed that lack of resources was part of the problem but said a change in culture was needed to focus on strong enforcement.
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Small incidents can have a big impact.
The chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage said that environmental watchdogs like NRW weren't up to the job.
He said that regulators have been defunded over the last couple of decades, less money available to investigate farming pollution and water company misbehaviour.
He said a decade of radical action was needed to hold polluters to account and force investment in cleaning up rivers and seas to help fight climate change.
NRW's bosses are going to appear in front of the Senedd's climate change committee on Thursday.
Llyr Gruffydd said he was concerned that NRW was being asked to do more and more when it was actually seeing its funding reduced.
He said that there are elements of its work that are struggling to deliver.
NRW's head of flood and incident risk management said the organisation recorded an average of 6,800 incidents a year, including floods, wildlife crime, land and water pollution.
We can respond quickly to those incidents that are assessed as high impact because our response is risk-based and proportional. He said it was around 1,100 annually.
If resources and other priorities allow, NRW's officers would follow up on many incidents noted as lower impact.
The Welsh government kept the NRW core budget of £60m despite facing a reduced budget from the UK.
She said that they will meet with Natural Resources Wales to keep up-to-date with their financial and operational situation, as well as review any pressures and opportunities over the coming year.
The Environment Agency is looking at how we can best use our resources and maximize benefits for the environment.
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