Image
The latest bathing water quality results have been published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
The findings are announced annually and are based on samples taken by the Environment Agency during the bathing water season between May and September each year. Readings can vary due to weather, pollution and storm water overflows.
In today’s announcement, water quality at Sand Bay and Weston-super-Mare’s main beach is recorded as ‘poor’, the same as last year’s results. Unfortunately, bathing water quality at Uphill is now also classed as ‘poor’, compared to ‘sufficient’ last year. However, water quality at Clevedon remains ‘good’.
The council is part of a Bathing Water Steering Group along with the Environment Agency, Wessex Water and other partners. Together, the organisations are continuing work to understand bathing water quality results, find and tackle the cause of the poor samples, and take action to improve water quality.
Cllr James Clayton, North Somerset Council’s executive member with responsibility for environmental protection, said: “I’m really pleased that Clevedon has continued to meet DEFRA standards. Obviously, it’s disappointing to hear about Uphill but we’ll continue doing everything we can to make sure everyone can enjoy our beaches, seafront and bathing waters.”
“It’s hard to pinpoint definitive causes because of the complex nature of the Severn Estuary. There’s likely to be an impact from farming at certain times, contamination coming from surface water drains, birds, sea front activity and other urban sources. The latter part of the summer was also very wet. This looks to have specifically impacted the quality for Sand Bay and Uphill, with the rain increasing run off and sources of bacterial pollution.
North Somerset Council’s Director of Public Health, Matt Lenny, said: “I’d like to reassure everyone who uses our beaches and might feel worried about these results. There’s no pass/fail standards for individual water samples. Instead, the classification is based on a statistical measure of all samples over a four-year period. A sample simply tells us the quality of the water at that specific time, but water can change even over the course of one day.
"We have an active signage system in place at Weston’s main beach which uses a prediction forecast to let swimmers know if there’s potential for lower water quality in real time. We want to make sure all our beach goers are well informed so they can choose how best to enjoy their time on our coastline.”
Ruth Barden, Director of Environmental Solutions for Wessex Water, said: “In recent years Wessex Water has invested millions of pounds at Weston-super-Mare ensuring sewage is treated to a standard that protects bathing water quality.
“While we do have two storm overflows that could possibly affect water quality at Weston Uphill and Weston Main beaches, one did not operate at all and the other operated just three times during the bathing water season during wet weather, releasing predominantly rainwater. Samples taken after one of these discharges showed the results for Uphill and Main were ‘Excellent’ and ‘Good’, so this is unlikely to have impacted bathing water quality.
“Our focus remains on helping partners to understand and address bathing water quality at these three bathing waters around Weston-super-Mare. This includes identifying and helping resolve private misconnection issues, where foul water at properties is inadvertently connected to the surface water system.”
Jim Flory, Wessex Area Environment Manager at the Environment Agency, said: “We are absolutely committed to improving bathing water quality around Weston. The large tides and complex movement of water around Weston means it’s very hard to identify individual sources of pollution. We do know at different times the beaches can be impacted by sources as diverse as agriculture, surface water run-off from the town and bird and dog faeces. And we are continuing to keep a very close eye on water company discharges to ensure they do not affect quality.
“By working with the Bathing Water Steering Group we are confident that we are doing all we can to see the improvement in water quality that everyone wants. Many people enjoy these coastal waters, and we know the value they bring in terms of social, health and wellbeing benefits. It’s vital that bathing water quality is maintained and improved."
Cllr James Clayton added: “All of us have a part to play in improving water quality. For example, putting litter in the bin or taking it home to dispose of properly, only taking dogs to areas where they’re allowed and always cleaning up after them and not flushing inappropriate items down the loo, which ultimately blocks sewers and causes them to overflow.”
The Environment Agency’s Swimfo website allows bathers to check information on over 400 bathing waters in England. Search Swimfo or go to https://environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles/