Water quality warnings mean you should think twice about swimming at the beach in Amble, Warkworth, Berwick or South Shields.
That's according to the Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) Safer Seas Service map which flags pollution hotspots. The SAS interactive water quality map shows that swimming at Warkworth or Amble Links isn't the best idea today (Monday) - with the label for both beaches saying: "Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours."
Berwick's Spittal beach is in the same situation, while Marsden beach in South Tyneside appears to have a different issue. There, the warning reads: "Bathing not advised today due to the likelihood of reduced water quality."
Read more: Surfers Against Sewage to hold protest march to highlight poor water quality at Cullercoats Bay
The interactive map tracks real-time "combined sewage overflows" - when untreated sewage is discharged into the sea - pollution risk forecasts. "
A spokesperson for Northumbrian Water said: “During heavy rainfall, all water companies use storm overflows which act as a relief valve on the sewer network to protect the homes of customers and the environment from sewer flooding.
“Such discharges happen with permission from the Environment Agency and are mostly rainwater with a small percentage of wastewater that have come together because they use the same sewer network."
This morning environmental campaigner and musician Feargal Sharkey warned that the UK was facing a "sorry mess" with sewage being discharged into seas and waterways.
He said: "It appeared yesterday that over the last six years water companies have now spent almost nine and a half million hours dumping sewage into the environment. And if the data is as faulty as it seems, that number could be a multiple of that by another multiplier of your choosing.
“It’s just a desperate sign of the extraordinary state of chaos that this industry has managed to get itself into.”
He added: “I’m afraid what you’re looking at is simply the result of 30 years of underinvestment by the water industry, 30 years of profiteering, 30 years of regulatory failure, and 30 years of a vacuum of political oversight and [the] Government failing to take proper control for this industry.”
Dozens of pollution warnings have been issued for beaches and swimming spots in England and Wales over the past week following heavy rain that overwhelmed the sewage system. There has been growing public outrage in recent years at the volume of raw or partially treated sewage pumped into the UK’s rivers and coastal waters.
Ministers are facing growing calls to clamp down on the water firms who are being criticised for not investing money back into the UK’s outdated water infrastructure.
In a report published in July, the Environment Agency said water company bosses should face jail for the worst pollution incidents, describing the sector’s performance in 2021 as the “worst we have seen for years”.
In response to the issue, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs released a response earlier this week outlining the action it is taking. Water minister Steve Double said: “We are the first government to take action to tackle sewage overflows."
He said "ambitious action" had been taken to improve water quality and work to tackle sewage overflows "continues at pace".
Northumbria Water's spokesperson said: "In the last Bathing Water classifications released by DEFRA, 32 of the North East’s 34 designated bathing waters achieved ratings of either ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’ – the highest possible classifications.
“We have invested heavily in upgrades to our wastewater network in the last two decades and beyond, which have played an important part in these results, and we continue to do so. More than £80 million of investment is targeted towards improvements related to storm overflows in our current 2020-25 operating period.”
One of the only beaches in our region to have a "poor" annual water quality rating is Cullercoats Bay in North Tyneside, which has been beset with water quality issues since 2017. That is not understood to be due to sewage being discharged into the bay - there are no "outfalls" in the immediate area, though for example the River Tyne is badly affected by this - but the rating has instead potentially been linked to polluted groundwater.
The issue has been subject to numerous investigations and water monitoring from Northumbrian Water, the Environment Agency and North Tyneside Council. But as it stands the poor rating means a Blue Flag is out of the question for the picturesque beach - which is popular with paddle-boarders and open water swimmers.
The pollution measured in Cullercoats has seen numerous protests over recent years. The SAS interactive water quality map highlights Cullercoats Bay as the only beach in our area with a "don't swim" warning, stating: "Bathing not advised due to Poor annual classification." This has been the case in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021. There was no classification in 2020, while the 2022 rating will be due following this year's summer season.
In April this year, the Surfers Against Sewage North Tyneside group held a demonstration on St George's Day calling for Northumbria Water to do more, faster, to improve things, while in February a "non-paddle out" was held.
Previously, North Tyneside Council's head of environment, housing and leisure spoke about the work that has been undertaken. He said: "A huge amount of work has been carried out on privately-owned sites and public spaces to try and remedy this problem and further improvements are being explored.
“Cullercoats remains a thriving and wonderful beach for locals and visitors to enjoy, with fantastic facilities in and around the beach area. We understand people’s concerns and we thank them for their patience, and we can assure them that we remain committed to doing all that we can to support this ongoing process until the water quality matches our aspirations, and our Blue Flag is restored."
A Northumbria Water echoed this, adding that investigations had "shown no evidence of our assets being a primary cause for the deterioration in bathing water quality". Contaminated groundwater is thought to be the cause.
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