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According to the DEFRA bathing water results, water quality at Uphill has remained the same and is ‘sufficient’ and Clevedon retains its status of ‘good’. While the water quality at Weston-super-Mare’s main beach is still recorded as ‘poor’ the latest results have shown an improvement on last year’s findings. Unfortunately, bathing water quality at Sand Bay is now ‘poor’.
In the last year a Bathing Water Steering Group was created which sees the council, the Environment Agency, Wessex Water and other partners continuing their work together to understand the results, find and tackle the cause of the poor samples, and take action to improve water quality.
Bathing water results 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.
There are things everyone can do to help improve bathing water quality. North Somerset residents and visitors are encouraged to:
- Always put litter in the bin or take it away to dispose of at home
- Only take dogs to areas where they are allowed and always pick up after them
- Check drains aren’t misconnected
- Use a WaterSafe accredited plumber
- Never flush wet wipes, cotton buds and sanitary items which might block drains and cause overflows to happen more often
- Never pour fats, oils and grease down drains.
North Somerset Council’s executive member for Neighbourhoods and Community Services, Cllr Mike Solomon, said: “We’re pleased to see Uphill and Clevedon continue to meet the stringent DEFRA standards and I’m delighted to see we’ve made improvements at Weston’s main beach, although I appreciate there’s still much to do to get it back up to standard. I’m saddened to hear about Sand Bay but we’ll continue to do everything possible to ensure everyone can enjoy our beaches, seafront and bathing waters.
“All of us can do our bit to improve water quality. For example disposing of litter properly, cleaning up after our dogs and not flushing inappropriate items down the loo, which ultimately blocks sewers and causes them to overflow.”
Cllr Mike Bell, Deputy Leader and executive member responsible for public health, said: “We’ve been working very hard to improve the situation at Weston’s main beach and it’s good to see that our efforts are making a difference. Sand Bay’s results are unexpected and are a bit more difficult to unpick due to it being a very different type of coastal environment to the main beach at Weston. However, with it being just around the coast it’s understandable that pollution can affect a much wider area.
“Our environmental teams will continue to look at all the factors that can impact water quality and we’ll work with our partners to take action and deliver improvements. However, we can’t do this on our own. We’ve been lobbying government to improve protection of our coastline. As a nation we must do more to protect our rivers, seas and oceans and stop untreated industrial or domestic pollutants from reaching our coastline.”
North Somerset Council’s Director of Public Health, Matt Lenny, said: “People who use our beaches might feel worried about these results, but there are 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.
"This year we’ve introduced an active signage system at Weston’s main beach. It 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.”
Jim Flory, Area Environment Manager at the Environment Agency said: “Weston’s bathing water quality is influenced by many factors, its location in a large estuary, and the potential for run-off from farms and businesses along the River Axe and around Weston. Our recent investigations using microbial DNA source tracing techniques found that seagulls can also be a significant source of contamination of the bathing water at main beach.
“As a member of the Bathing Water Steering Group and a regulator we are working closely with North Somerset Council, Wessex Water and other partners to identify potential issues and take action where it is needed.”
In recent years Wessex Water has invested millions of pounds to make sure sewage received from homes and businesses in the area is treated to a high standard using state of the art UV treatment to kill bacteria. The company operates two storm overflows in the area. These are used to protect properties from flooding during extreme rainfall events. Because of the exceptionally dry season this year, only one storm overflow was activated during the bathing water season and this is not thought to have influenced water quality sampling.
Ruth Barden, Director of Environmental Solutions for Wessex Water, said: "The sewerage network along the North Somerset coast and our water recycling centre has shown very good performance and has not affected the bathing water quality status for Weston-super-Mare Main and Sand Bay.
“We continue to work closely with the council, Environment Agency and others to understand reasons behind bathing water quality results in these areas. This work includes carrying out misconnection surveys to understand if any sewerage pipes might be illegally connected by homeowners or businesses into the surface water system.”