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Water companies dumped untreated sewage on bathing beaches nearly 3,000 times over the past year, polluting the environment and putting public health at risk, a new analysis shows.
The discharges occurred throughout England and Wales, including some of the most popular beaches.
The Surfers Against Sewage study, which publishes data on sewage discharges as they occur, examines water utility notifications of effluent discharges over 12 months.
The report says that one company, Southern Water, did not issue advisories for when it was discharging sewage at various popular beaches, leaving the public at risk.
“The failure to provide this information has put thousands of water users at risk,” the SAS report stated. He said more than 20% of reports of swimmer, surfer and rower illnesses after using the sea came from locations within the Southern Water catchment. Seven reports came only from Hove Lawns Beach in Brighton.
“These illnesses could have been prevented if discharge notices had been issued,” the report says.
He estimates that 6% of bathing days were lost in bathing water in 2020 due to sewage discharges in the seas of England and Wales.
Under EU regulations that have been incorporated into UK law since Brexit, countries are required to monitor and evaluate bathing water for faecal bacteria and inform the public about bathing water quality and management of the beach through the so-called bathing water profiles: poor, sufficient, good or excellent. – or notices that prohibit or advise against the bathroom.
Discharges to UK bathing water come from Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) – emergency infrastructure designed to release sewage and sewage after extreme rains to relieve pressure in the system.
However, the report said: “CSOs are used outside of these rainy periods, generating environmental damage and greater risk to water users.”
The SAS report presents data collected through its safer seas service, a real-time alert system for users of seawater, polluting emissions, and information from the Environmental Agency’s pollution risk forecasts. Environment, which indicate where there is greater contamination. Eight of the major coastal water companies in England and Wales voluntarily provide CSO discharge notifications to the alert service.
There were 2,941 reports of untreated sewage discharges into bathing water on beaches stretching from Northumbria to Cornwall in the year through October; comprising 1,195 notifications during the bathing season, from May 15 to September 30, and 1,746 times “out of season”.
Only five companies; Northumbrian, United Utilities, Welsh Water, Wessex, and Yorkshire publish information on off-season wastewater discharges. Southern, Anglian and South West Water do not notify the public outside of bathing season.
The report estimated that if all water companies issued spill notifications throughout the year, the figure would reach 3,434.
The health impact is highlighted in 153 reports of illness from people who used the affected bathing water in 2020. The worst locations were in the Southern Water areas, including Hove Lawn Beach, where the quality of the water is “excellent”.
In the Southwest, disease hotspots include Westward Ho! and the popular Croyde Bay surf beach.
The most common illness was gastroenteritis or infectious diarrhea, accounting for 64% of the reports submitted.
SAS is calling for all water companies to publish data on wastewater discharges throughout the year, and wants legally binding targets in the next environmental bill to end the discharge of raw wastewater into all bathing water. by 2030.
“The fact of not providing transparent information in real time throughout the year, therefore, presents a risk to human health, since a large number of water users do not have access to the information that allows them to stay safe”, the report says.
Some of the worst locations for OSC discharges were Biggar Bank Beach on Walney Island in Cumbria, where United Utilities said it discharged raw sewage through OSC 58 times, Benllech Beach on Anglesey, with 51, and the Scarborough North Bay beach, 61.
In Dorset, Christchurch Beach received 71 discharges and Seatown Beach 73, while in Poole Harbor Wessex Water issued untreated sewage discharge notifications 299 times.
Southern Water issued the fewest notifications at just 78, compared to 690 in 2019. It said the lack of data was due to technology issues. “Notifications should have been sent, but sadly, they didn’t,” the company said.
A spokesperson added: “An enhanced service is being finalized in consultation with stakeholder groups, including Surfers Against Sewage.
“The introduction of the system has had initial problems: our software development teams have continued to refine the engineering during the summer.”
The SAS report stated: “Our findings… present a worrying and consistent trend, consistent with other reports of a continued decline in the performance of water companies.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. Water companies must do more to protect and restore blue environments and fully safeguard the growing number of people who depend on these natural conveniences for their health, prosperity and well-being.”
Philip Dunne MP, chair of the environmental audit committee, said: “This is further proof that untreated sewage continues to be discharged on a routine basis … We need to stop this and manage human effluent properly so as not to directly contaminate the water that we all depend on.
“We must seize the ugly truth of information like this and use it to instill the need to begin the process of widespread improvement of wastewater infrastructure.”
Dunne is trying to change the law to stop water companies’ sewage discharges into inland waters. His private members bill will be debated in parliament in January.
This week, activists from SAS and other NGOs will present a 50,000-person petition to Environment Secretary George Eustice calling for an end to sewage pollution.
A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “We are working with the government, the water industry and environmental groups in a task force on storm overflows to propose ways to dramatically reduce the frequency and volumes of wastewater being discharged. in our waterways, and we will not hesitate to enforce actions against companies that have damaged the environment. ”
