'We'll test the water quality ourselves' say campaigners, who warn pollution perceptions are hurting tourism
It comes as a separate nine month campaign by Luke Pollard MP has found a solution to the water pollution at Plymouth's Devil's Point
Holidaymakers have welcomed plans for a new 'citizen's science' group which is being created to test the water quality of Devon's Teign Estuary each day.
The Environment Agency legally only has to test it five times a year - but currently does it 20 times.
Local campaigners say it's not enough and the perception of poor water quality is hurting tourism - after Teignmouth lost its blue flag status earlier this year.
Teignmouth Councillor David Cox said: “The state of our rivers and the sea has been a regular basis over the last two years.”
“Modern technology and changing environmental policies, has increased public involvement in river monitoring over the last few years. This has led to a bottom-up social movement that is clamouring for a change in the way we manage our water environment.”
Shaldon resident, Stuart Reynolds, said, “We are lucky to live in a beautiful place where the waters are mostly clear and safe. However, we need to understand what’s really happening when the sewage overflows are operating. Frankly that isn’t going to happen unless we do something locally. This initiative will really help us make sure the river and beaches are clean all year round.”.
Dawlish Councillor, Martin Wrigley said: ”We want volunteers to test the health of the our rivers, so that we can present South West Water with robust scientific evidence. The Environment Agency testing regime was no longer widespread or comprehensive enough.”
What does the Environment Agency say?
Citizen Science initiatives provide invaluable data, which complements our own monitoring and assessment work and enables a greater level of engagement with partners.
We hugely value the contribution of England’s enthusiastic citizen scientists and share their passion for the environment. We welcome various emerging initiatives and look forward to working more closely together to help find solutions to the complex problems water is facing.
Our aim is that by 2025 we will have clear ways of working in place that will use citizen science information to expand the available data and evidence that will inform decisions, ensuring there is a national framework to provide consistency and quality across the board.
We are committed to trying new evidence to facilitate new ideas, working collaboratively with everyone responsible for the water environment, and find new solutions to the challenges we are all facing.
What does South West Water say?
A South West Water spokesperson said: “With one-third of the UK’s bathing waters, we have focused on achieving 100% monitoring across all of our storm overflows, and achieved that last year, ahead of plan.
“We are now using this data to go further and faster to reduce the impact of storm overflows, as well as sharing data with customers and communities about water quality on their favourite beach and the investments we’re making.”
“The South West has some of the best bathing waters in Europe. For the last two years running, we achieved 100% coastal bathing water quality for the first time across 860 miles of coastline, with 99% rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’ compared to just 28% in 1991.”
The firm added that bathing water quality at Teignmouth Holcombe and Shaldon has been rated as ‘Excellent’ in the most recent classification by the Environment Agency and Teignmouth Town has been rated as ‘Good’ (down from Excellent),
Earlier this year the firm launched WaterFit Live, an interactive map 'which provides near real time data on the performance of our network at designated bathing beaches. Customers and visitors can go online to find out more and through Your Beach, Your Say, Our Investment, help shape where we invest next'.
They added: "There is a wide range of influences which affect river water quality, including agricultural and urban run-off, and we recognise that to improve the quality of our rivers, we all need to play our part. As such, we continue to work closely with local stakeholders and partners on improvements to the environment. South West Water is investing to dramatically reduce our use of storm overflows and reduce our impact on rivers by one-third by 2025."
What changes have been agreed for Plymouth?
A nine month campaign by local MP Luke Pollard found the source of the raw sewage discharges at Devil’s Point was two private sewers taking waste from local properties out to sea.
Luke has hosted a series of meetings for affected local residents and South West Water to agree a way forward. Working with residents, they activated a clause in the Water Industry Act 1991 to ask South West Water to officially take on their sewage connection.
The MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said: "South West Water engineers have conducted surveys of the private sewers originally built when the area was owned by the Ministry of Defence, and confirmed they are releasing untreated sewage into Plymouth Sound.
"Their engineers have proposed a plan to divert the flow into SWW’s main sewers on the Stonehouse Peninsula, stopping the discharges. If South West Water bosses approve the scheme, then work could begin in the autumn with discharges brought to an end by Christmas 2023.
“I don’t just talk about stopping sewage, I’m proud to be taking action to stop raw sewage discharges.
“After winning the campaign to designate Devil’s Point as an official bathing water in May, I turned my attention to stopping the sewage discharges into this now protected piece of water.
“I want to thank South West Water for working so collaboratively and swiftly with local residents to help us identify the discharges from these two private sewers and to hatch a plan to stop the discharges. By working with local residents and South West Water we hope to shut down discharges by Christmas.”
A South West Water spokesperson added: “We’re pleased to be working collaboratively with Luke Pollard MP and local residents as we look to agree on a solution to stopping these discharges at Firestone Bay.
“The South West has some of the best bathing waters in Europe and our priority is always to protect the environment as much as we possibly can.
“That’s why we are proud to have achieved 100% coastal bathing water quality across 860 miles of coastline for the second year in a row, with 99% rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’ compared to just 28% in 1991.”