After a long dry spell the heavens have opened over South West England once again. Here is this evening’s WaterFit Live map from South West Water:
In our corner of Devon there have been multi-hour CSO activations at Woolacombe, Ilfracombe and Lynmouth, plus our nearest surfing beach at Widemouth Bay in North Cornwall:
The Environment Agency has issued red flood warnings for the lower River Torridge and the middle River Taw:
Yellow flood alerts have also been issued for the upper and middle River Tamar and the rest of the Taw and Torridge catchments. Needless to say the WaterFit Live map is full of yellow warnings for sewage pollution:
The Environment Agency has issued an “Advice against bathing” warning, due to sewage pollution at Dittisham on the estuary of the River Dart:
This morning the flood warnings and alerts remain in place, and the water level in the River Torridge is rising again:
It will not come as a surprise to learn that there is no respite in the sewage pollution around the coasts of Devon and Cornwall:
To add insult to considerable injury, the Environment Agency has issued another “Advice against bathing” warning in place, due to sewage pollution at Plymouth Hoe West:
The EA’s warning for Dittisham remains in place.
[Update – January 7th]The Environment Agency flood and sewage pollution warnings have been removed today, but there are still plenty of active Combined Sewer Overflows around our coasts:
In North Devon there are continuing multi-day “spills” at Woolacombe, Ilfracombe and Combe Martin:
Moving further west along the coast into North Cornwall, there are also ongoing multi-day sewage pollution incidents at Trebarwith Strand, Trevone, Harlyn and Mawgan Porth:
Further west still there are also ongoing multi-day sewage spills affecting Portreath on the north coast, and Falmouth, Pentewan, Par Sands, East Looe and Seaton on the south coast of Cornwall:
Across the River Tamar along the south coast of Devon the lengthening list of multi-day sewage pollution incidents includes several affecting the River Plym and Plymouth Hoe, and also the River Erme and hence Mothecombe and Coastguard beaches. Rounding Start Point there are also ongoing multi-day “spills” affecting Meadfoot Beach in Torbay, Sandy Bay near Exmouth, Sidmouth and the River Axe at Seaton:
Yesterday North Cornwall MP Ben Maguire published an “open letter” addressed to Susan Davy, the Chief Executive of South West Water:
🚨🚨 SOUTH WEST WATER: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. ⏳
— Ben Maguire MP for North Cornwall (@BenMaguireNC) January 7, 2025
I have today demanded that Susan Davy, the Chief Exec of South West Water, resign from her position with immediate effect.
South West Water’s failures have reached an intolerable level under her leadership over the past decade.… pic.twitter.com/1MoKPsc6ch
South West Water have not announced Ms. Davy’s resignation yet, but their web site still shows “an intolerable level” of recent sewage pollution incidents:
Many CSOs that first activated on January 4th are still operating this morning, including those at Harlyn Bay, Pentewan, Par Sands, Efford Marsh in Plymouth and Meadfoot Beach. Also a new “spill” has appeared on the WaterFit Live map, at Porthcurno in the far west of Cornwall:
Not obvious from this morning’s map is another long lasting pollution event at Sandy Bay near Exmouth. The map shows a CSO activation lasting less than an hour in the small hours of this morning. However the data acquired by our “Combined Sewer Overflow Monitor” project shows that with brief gaps yesterday the pollution at Sandy Bay actually started on January 4th.
P.S. By mid afternoon snow has started falling across much of South West England:
Several more of the “usual suspect” beaches are now affected by active CSOs:
They include Exmouth, Long Rock beach in Penzance and Sidmouth once again:
P.P.S. Tonight still more yellow warnings have appeared, including Sandy Bay once again:
It may not yet be obvious from this morning’s WaterFit Live map, but there has been a reduction in the number of active CSOs overnight:
However several multi-day sewage pollution events are continuing, including those that started on January 4th in Plymouth, Pentewan, Harlyn Bay, Par Sands and Meadfoot beach:
Then there are the ongoing “spills” that started on January 5th, including at Woolacombe in North Devon and Mothecombe and Coastguard beaches on the south coast. The latter two are both currently affected by sewage entering the River Erme at Ivybridge and Ermington.
Other ongoing multi-day spills include Falmouth which started on January 6th, and Porthcurno on the 8th:
According to George Thorpe of BBC News on January 5th:
Work to replace more than 300m (984ft) of sewer has been completed as part of a multi-million pound project in Devon.
South West Water (SWW) said engineers carried out the work on the sewer entering the Maer Lane wastewater treatment site in Exmouth over eight weeks.
Here are this evening’s updates from South West Water’s WaterFit Live map for Exmouth and nearby Sandy Bay:
Those brief “spills” don’t look too concerning at first sight. However, data from our “Combined Sewer Overflow Monitor” project shows that pollution from CSOs has been affecting the beaches at both Exmouth and Sandy Bay for most of the time since January 4th:
To be continued…
