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There’s been a few dryish days recently. Consequently you might expect South West Water’s WaterFit Live map to be free of sewage pollution indications. However, sadly that is not the case:

The reason for the brightly coloured pushpin representing Budleigh Salterton on the map is not entirely clear. Here is what you see if you click on the pushpin now, as well as what it revealed earlier this afternoon:

There are several other CSO monitors “undergoing maintenance, investigation or improvement” around the south coast of Devon at the moment, at Plymouth, Salcombe and Goodrington:

There is also a CSO monitor “undergoing maintenance…” in Dawlish, together with another one that activated briefly yesterday evening:

“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice.

A band of rain is crossing the West Country this morning, and the Environment Agency has issued a “pollution risk” warning for Combe Martin:

So far today the only sewage pollution incident is due to the apparently perennial problem at the Lime Kiln CSO in Budleigh Salterton:

P.S. Regarding the 9:22 “spill” from the Lime Kiln CSO, South West Water tell me via XTwitter that:

The front page of WFL shows when the bathing water is potentially affected by our assets. For Lime Kiln storm overflow, Budleigh Salterton specifically, a spill less than 20 minutes will not affect the bathing water as determined by the EA, so the pin colour does not change…

There was an amber pin this morning as there was a spill that lasted longer than 20 minutes on 03/06, which was removed today at 10:27. The spill you’re referring to lasted 1 minute and 1 second.

Although it doesn’t appear on the WaterFit Live front page, the Budleigh Salterton detail page reveals that the Lime Kiln CSO monitor continues to activate in short bursts several times per day:

Another day of everything apparently AOK on the WaterFit Live front page:

but continuing short activations of the Lime Kiln CSO monitor in Budleigh Salterton:

This morning there is another warning for sewage pollution at Budleigh Salterton on the WaterFit Live map:

According to South West Water CSO monitor activations lasting less than 20 minutes don’t appear on the main page, so presumably there must have been a longer “spill” before the brief burst at 10:27. The “maintenance” at Dawlish is the only one that remains.

P.S. This evening we managed to grab a screenshot of an ongoing Budleigh “spill” at 21:05:42. It subsequently proved to have only lasted for one minute, which leads one to wonder how often SWW update the WaterFit Live data:

P.P.S. Later still, and an orange pushpin is back on the WaterFit Live main page, but only another brief burst is visible on the Budleigh detail page. also a CSO monitor at Kingsand is now “undergoing maintenance, investigation or improvement”:

It’s been raining today and so, as our regular readers will anticipate by now, there are currently numerous sewage pollution indications on South West Water’s WaterFit Live map:

On the south coast of Devon these include ongoing “spills” at Plymouth and Salcombe, plus the apparently now inevitable “quick burst” at Budleigh Salterton:

Meanwhile across the River Tamar in Cornwall there are ongoing sewage pollution incidents at Seaton and Portreath, and ones earlier today at Fowey and Penzance:

P.S. This evening there have been additional sewage pollution incidents on the north coast of Cornwall at Godrevy, Gwithian and Porthkidney Sands. Plus on the south coast at East Looe:

Back in South Devon some new designated bathing waters have recently appeared on the WaterFit Live map along the Dart Estuary. Today there have been sewage “spills” at Steamer Quay in Totnes and at Dittisham:

Environment Agency testing at the new sites on the River Dart has revealed varying levels of bacteriological pollution at them all.

To be continued…