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Secondary treatment termination will cause health risk
by Richard Hardy
26/10/2007:// Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) are concerned that there will be an inevitable reduction in water quality after Lowestoft’s secondary level treatment process is turned off next week, posing an increased health risk for recreational water users over the winter months.
Whilst recognizing there is a need for this remedial work to be carried out to maintain long-term clean and safe water, SAS believe Anglian Water’s discharge assessment has not looked at the impacts of reduced sewage treatment through the ‘eyes of the recreational water user’.
The Lowestoft sewage treatment turn-off will hit groups like surfers, windsurfers, kitesurfers and sailors hardest, as their sports are often carried out beyond the water quality sampling points used by the Environment Agency. So whilst the data provided by Anglian Water might meet the European Union’s bathing water standards it is unlikely to do so in areas further out from the shoreline where recreational water users go and where the effluent plume shows higher concentrations of bacteria.
SAS are particularly concerned that a figure used in Anglian Water’s Discharge Assessment, to illustrate the time in hours that bacteria take to die off in seawater without sewage treatment, seems unusually low. The study undertaken by METOC, highlights the time it takes for bacteria to die off in untreated wastewater (T90) as 20 hours for this region. However a similar recent study undertaken by METOC for Northumbrian Water shows a T90 figure of 40 hours for bacteria to die off outside the bathing season under the same conditions. With both water companies sharing the same coastline we would expect the figures to be much closer to each other.
Whilst there are no real alternatives to not turning the sewage treatment works off in order to make repairs, we therefore consider it extra important for recreational water users in the Lowestoft area to be well informed over any potential water quality issues that arise from a reduction in sewage treatment from 29th October 2007 to 30th April 2008.
SAS would like to see a precautionary approach taken towards protecting the health of recreational water users, where Anglian Water and Waveney District Council environmental health department place temporary signage at Lowestoft North, Lowestoft South, Victoria and Gorleston beaches to ensure those using the water for recreation are aware of the ongoing maintenance work and that water quality is likely to suffer due to the discharge of raw sewage over the winter 2007/2008 period. SAS are aware that the Council and Anglian Water have already met to consider whether signage would be appropriate and this was rejected. But SAS have learnt that no one from the Council’s Environmental Health team (responsible for public health issues) was at this meeting and therefore SAS are calling for this to be reconvened at the earliest opportunity.
In the interests of maintaining public health, SAS would also ask the Environment Agency to undertake weekly water quality samples over the period of this work to ensure water quality is passing the EU water quality standards to back up the modeling carried out for this assessment. The cost of this testing should be passed on to Anglian Water.
SAS are also calling on recreational water users to visit there local GP and contact SAS should they feel sick having used using local beaches for water recreation during this period of work undertaken on the plant.
SAS have also learnt that Anglian Water were set to reduce the level of sewage treatment at Caister, Great Yarmouth this winter as well. Whilst this has now been postponed for this winter it could feature next year making it all the more important to ensure a system is in place this year to ensure public health is safeguarded for all recreational water users in the region.
Richard Hardy, Surfers Against Sewage Campaigns Director says:“Whilst there is little alternative for turning the sewage treatment off to remedy the current problem, we do believe more can be done to safeguard public health of those using the sea for recreation during this period. Water quality will undoubtedly drop during this period and SAS are concerned that the time it takes harmful bacteria to die off in seawater may well have been underestimated, making it all the more important to take steps to safeguard public health through posting beach signage and taking water quality samples”.
Mark Southgate, Surfers Against Sewage local representative and from East Coast Surf Shop says:"Lowestoft & Gorleston are regular spots that I surf and they both have their own surfing communities. I am not looking forward to the return of untreated sewage being dumped in the water on this coast having seen the benefits of improved sewage treatment in recent years. Both my customers and I feel it is important to test water quality over the winter months to safeguard public health and that fixed signage is placed at the designated bathing waters to ensure everyone is aware of the work taking place”.
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