Sanitary waste picked up by Aidan Botha at Porthleven.
Surfers in Porthleven are saying sewage in the sea is making them ill. Despite the main outfall having received a treatment plant that supplies full secondary treatment and UV disinfection sanitary towels and raw sewage are still washing up around the harbour area.
Mitch Holmes said a scratch picked up in the garden in January became infected – causing his whole arm to swell up – after surfing at Porthleven. Other surfers and residents are complaining of a lot of sanitary items washing around the harbour.
Lev had a few good days this winter. If you have been ill after surfing there please fill out an incident form on the links below. Nath Phillips. Pic J Dog
South West Water said the local waste treatment works were working and that it had previously found domestic properties wrongly connected to storm drains.
“Last year we identified three domestic properties who have wrongly connected their foul sewage into the surface water drainage system, which discharges into the harbour. We are working with the householders concerned to resolve this as soon as possible, alongside the Environment Agency.”
The Environment Agency said it was aware of “sewage-related debris” in the harbour and would investigate when weather improved… Which of course, isn’t really good enough…
Hugo Tagholm of SAS said
“Porthleven is full sewage treatment with UV, and we don’t have any notifications of CSO activity although storms of course can elevate this.”
CSO’s (Combined sewer overflows) are usually a big factor in pollution on popular surfing beaches during periods of heavy rain, however SWW say their overflow has screening which would catch any debris. Unfortunately SWW and other water companies switch off the data supply outside of ‘Bathing season” – an outdated concept which assumes no one uses the sea outside of 15 May to 30 September – so we can’t check this fact.
SWW switch off data outside of ‘bathing season’. Maybe because they know how much crap they pump out in autumn and winter?
“The EA is investigating and trying to resolve the misconnections that are believed to be causing the issue.’ continued Hugo
“Sanitary waste is a good indicator of pollution – the challenge is that this problem is everywhere due to CSO’s, and so the water company sanctions that will hopefully be strengthened through the next Environment Bill are all important.
“We are of course very concerned at the national picture on water quality, and have a new ‘citizen science’ testing campaign’ coming this summer, along with new health elements to the Safer Seas Service and a campaigning tool to apply people power campaign pressure on politicians.
“It’s always a huge concern to see local impacts, and suspected sewage-related illness, and we have asked for more details for our medical database. Given there have been quite a lot of good days down there this year, it would be great to know if any of the local crew that have been ill. We’d love to get the data. “
“I would also urge the local surf community to submit the evidence and data to Surfers Against Sewage for any ongoing events and impacts, and submit this to the Environment Agency through their hotline ) where pollution incidents can be logged and action taken. Images, times, dates, medical records are all important.
“These case studies can be very powerful as we lobby MPs through our work inside and outside Parliament. Our ground-breaking water quality report shone a new light on these issues last year and we’d welcome the whole surf community to join us on sewage pollution and water quality actions this year.”
If you believed you have been made ill by sewage at any break in he UK please fill in one of the forms
https://www.sas.org.uk/medical-response-form/
