Widemouth Bay - The West Devon Free Press

March Sewage Pollution in South West England

Post author:Jim Hunt
Post published:29 February 2024
Post category:Water Quality
Post comments:0 Comments

It’s the day after February 28th, and the previous month’s sewage pollution article is overflowing with almost continuous news of combined sewer overflow activations around the coast of Devon and Cornwall. I’ve taken the liberty of starting this article a day early, hoping rather than expecting that March will be a bit quieter.

After yet more rain overnight, here is this morning’s Surfers Against Sewage map of pollution around our coasts:

Starting with the local surfing beaches, sewage pollution has been occurring this morning at Widemouth Bay:

and the adjacent Trevone and Harlyn Bays, amongst numerous other places across Cornwall:

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February Sewage Pollution in South West England

Post author:Jim Hunt
Post published:6 February 2024
Post category:Water Quality
Post comments:0 Comments

At least we've endured no named storms for a few days! However, this evening we have experienced a band of rain crossing the West Country: Needless to say when I…

Sewage Pollution Following Storm Isha

Post author:Jim Hunt
Post published:21 January 2024
Post category:Water Quality
Post comments:0 Comments

I posed a (rather rhetorical) question to our regular reader(s) on XTwitter yesterday, and the answer arrived in next to no time: https://twitter.com/west_devon_info/status/1748853663987028292 This evening Storm Isha is unleashing her…

Have a Very Smelly Xmas

Post author:Jim Hunt
Post published:24 December 2023
Post category:Water Quality
Post comments:2 Comments

It's Christmas Eve and we've received Xmas greetings from South West Water. As well as a revised water bill for a quarter of the amount of the original one, comes…

Christmas is Coming, and so is Sewage Pollution

Post author:Jim Hunt
Post published:19 December 2023
Post category:Water Quality
Post comments:4 Comments

Following the severe storms last weekend a smaller storm is crossing the West Country this morning. Here's the Met Office forecast for today's accumulated rainfall by midday: That shows around…

October Sewage Pollution in South West England

Post author:Jim Hunt
Post published:13 October 2023
Post category:Water Quality
Post comments:0 Comments

After a few days of warm, sunny weather the Met Office in Exeter issued a yellow weather warning for heavy rain last night: The heavens duly opened across South West…

Autumnal Sewage Pollution at Widemouth Bay and Bude

Post author:Jim Hunt
Post published:31 August 2023
Post category:Water Quality
Post comments:1 Comment

The end of meteorological summer is upon us. Schools go back next week. Storms are raging in the North Atlantic. It's time to start checking the surf forecast at our…

Storm Betty Barrels Towards the UK

Post author:Jim Hunt
Post published:18 August 2023
Post category:Weather
Post comments:0 Comments

Hot on the heels of Storm Antoni earlier this month, the Met Office in Exeter has just issued a press release about the imminent arrival of another mid-summer named storm:…

Sewage in the Sea at Widemouth Bay

Post author:Jim Hunt
Post published:14 August 2023
Post category:Water Quality
Post comments:0 Comments

We visited the north coast yesterday afternoon, for a walk rather than a surf. The wet weather gear came out at around quarter past two: The rain became heavier overnight.…

Summer’s in the air, and sewage is in the sea

Post author:Jim Hunt
Post published:27 July 2023
Post category:Water Quality
Post comments:1 Comment

School summer holidays are starting. I don’t know if there is a causal relationship, but it probably won’t come as a huge surprise to many residents of West Devon that the UK Met Office’s rainfall map of the area looked like this yesterday afternoon:

As luck would have it, I had just set up our shiny new Twitter account so that I could report to the rest of the planet on yesterday’s exciting news from Halwill Junction football pitch.

Twitter insisted that I “follow” several other accounts, and of course South West Water was top of my list! Whereupon Elon Musk‘s latest (single) X algorithm suddenly revealed this to me:

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