The Met Office has issued a series of yellow weather warnings for heavy rain across Devon and Cornwall, from the evening of Wednesday September 4th until midnight on Friday September 6th!
The Met Office say that “There is a small chance of fast-flowing or deep floodwater. Where flooding occurs, there is a chance of delays or cancellations to train and bus services”.
Perhaps they should have added “There is a high chance of sewage pollution”?
The heavy rain has duly arrived, as shown by the NetWeather rain radar map:
This morning the Environment Agency issued numerous “Advice against bathing” warnings, and this afternoon South West Water’s “WaterFit Live” map reveals numerous sewage pollution incidents along both the north and south coasts of Devon:
Amongst the usual suspects on the south coast of Devon, there are ongoing sewage “spills” in Exmouth and Plymouth:
There’s been plenty more rain this morning:
There have also been plenty more sewage pollution incidents:
These include several local north coast surfing beaches:
The sewage pollution in Exmouth continues, but in Plymouth it finished at 22:37 last night:
No sooner has the previous warning of heavy rain expired than the Met Office issues another one:
By the early evening the rain has already arrived:
There are already several sewage pollution warnings along the south coast:
They include continuing pollution in Exmouth, and Fowey on the south coast of Cornwall:
Hence the coast of South West England is now a sea of “pollution risk” warnings…
and sewage pollution incidents:
The sewage pollution in Exmouth continues, and there has been another multi-hour incident in Fowey:
Today’s sewage “spills” in North Cornwall include an ongoing incident at Harlyn Bay, plus others at Trevone, Mawgan Porth, Polzeath and Widemouth Bay:
The Environment Agency “advice against bathing” due to a “pollution incident” at Trevone Bay remains in place. There are also “pollution risk warnings” for Bude and Combe Martin:
South West Water’s WaterFit Live front page reports several sewage pollution “spills” over the last 12 hours. The multi-day pollution incidents at Exmouth and Seaton finally seem to have finished overnight.
After a dry day yesterday the only alert remaining on WaterFit Live is from Fowey yesterday morning:
However, the Environment Agency has issued a “pollution risk warning” for Combe Martin once again:
Now the clouds have opened over Exmoor once again:
The last blot on the South West’s coastal seascape is a continuing Environment Agency “pollution risk warning” for Combe Martin:
Hopefully the “all clear” will be sounded tomorrow?
[Update – September 12th]It was not to be. The pollution risk warning for Combe Martin continues:
At long last the all clear has been sounded at Combe Martin:
The end of the water sampling season is rapidly approaching, so let’s take a look at the 2024 test results for Combe Martin:
Far from perfect, but much better than last year at least!
[Update – September 17th]Given the recent absence of rain I’m slightly surprised to see these pollution risk warnings for Paignton and Eat Looe this morning:
I’m even more surprised this morning!
There is still a decided lack of rain here in West Devon, but today the Environment Agency has issued an “advice against bathing” due to “pollution from sewage” at Pentewan on the south coast of Cornwall:
However, there is no indication of the problem on South West Water’s WaterFit Live map for the beach:
The pollution risk warnings at Looe and Paignton continue.
[Update – September 20th]Here’s the Environment Agency’s SwimInfo map for Devon and Cornwall this morning:
The EA’s sewage pollution alert for Pentewan remains in place this morning. The pollution risk warnings at Looe and Paignton have been joined by another one at Ladram Bay in South Devon:
Here’s the South West section of today’s EA SwimInfo map:
The sewage pollution alert at Pentewan has been removed. However, the continuing pollution risk warnings at East Looe and Paignton have been joined by a new one at Lyme Regis:
The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for heavy rain on Sunday. No doubt the pollution risks around our coast are increasing:
The forecast heavy rain has arrived overnight:
As a consequence the Environment Agency’s SwimInfo map is now covered with pollution risk warnings around the coast of the West Country:
South West Water’s WaterFit Live map now contains some CSO activation alerts along the south coast of Devon:
P.S. There are now ongoing multi-hour Combined Sewer Overflow activations at many of the usual suspects, including Harlyn Bay, St. Agnes, Fowey and Meadfoot beach in Torbay:
Note that the Environment Agency has now issued an alert for a “pollution incident” at nearby Trevone, but not yet for Harlyn Bay:
After yesterday’s deluge both the Environment Agency and WaterFit Live maps are a lot less cluttered with metaphorical red flags this morning:
There is a CSO currently active in Fowey, but strangely that is not evident on SWW’s overview map above:
SWW inform me via XTwitter that:
[Update – September 25th]While the asset did trigger, this was due to tidal infiltration so was not a spill. So, we are indicating that the sensor was activated, but there is no risk to bathing water quality.
After an all too brief hiatus there’s been some more rain today. Consequently there are now many metaphorical “red flags” on both the Environment Agency and South West Water maps, particularly along the south coast:
Amongst other incidents there are ongoing “spills” at Seaton and Meadfoot Beach in Torbay, plus CSO activations at Sidmouth and Lyme Regis:
This morning there are plenty more “red flags” on the EA and SWW maps:
In North Devon there is an ongoing sewage “spill” at Lynmouth, and other CSO activations at Ilfracombe and Westward Ho!:
On the south coast of Devon there have been numerous pollution incidents, including these at Seaton, Exmouth, Dawlish and Plymouth:
After the continuing rain overnight there have been several more sewage pollution incidents this morning:
Along the nearby coast of North Cornwall there is yet another ongoing “spill” at Harlyn Bay, together with shorter ones at Bude, Widemouth Bay and Mawgan Porth:
Further north there have been CSO activations at Westward Ho!, Ilfracombe and a multi-hour “spill” at Lynmouth once again:
P.S. This afternoon the Environment Agency has issued a warning about sewage pollution at Summerleaze Beach in Bude:
P.P.S. South West Water have informed me that:
[Update – September 28th]Due to a power outage earlier today at our Castle pumping station in Bude, we experienced a temporary spill on site. The issue has now been fixed.
The Environment Agency warning about sewage pollution at Summerleaze Beach remains in place this morning, and there was another CSO activation overnight at Harlyn Bay:
There is no respite from sewage spills in sight. The Met Office warn of more rain tomorrow. If you fancy a dip in the ocean, don’t wait until then. But avoid Summerleaze today!
There are no recent CSO activations reported on South West Water’s map this morning, and the Environment Agency’s warning against bathing at Summerleaze has now been removed. However in anticipation of the heavy rain this afternoon several pollution risk warnings have been issued for beaches along the south coast:
The Environment Agency’s SwimInfo map shows plenty of “pollution risk” warnings this morning, and South West Water’s WaterFit Live map shows plenty of actual pollution over the last 12 hours:
Sewage pollution has been continuing at Harlyn Bay for 16 hours, and counting. The “spill” at St. Agnes lasted a mere 2 1/2 hours:
On the south coast of Devon there is ongoing sewage pollution at Seaton and Sandy Bay, and there have been multi-hour “spills” at Exmouth and Sidmouth:
The number of sewage pollution incidents within the last 12 hours is reducing at last, and no CSOs are currently active. The Surfers Against Sewage map shows the far greater number of beaches that have experienced some pollution over the last 48 hours:
The worst affected area is Plymouth, Where the “spill” at Efford Marsh lasted for 32 hours. The one in Sidmouth lasted 31 hours. It’s now impossible to tell how long yesterday’s incident at Harlyn Bay lasted in total, because there’s been another one there today
To be continued…
