Sewage has continued to be dumped into the ocean at three Cornish beaches even though it has not rained for days. Earlier this year, following heavy rain, dozens of beaches were issued with sewage pollution alerts.
After heavy downpours on Sunday January 5, some 41 beaches in Cornwall had a red 'poo' tick on the Surfers Against Sewage's water quality live map.
Sewage dumps are often blamed on heavy rainfall as overflows prevent drains from being overwhelmed. According to the St Agnes-based environmental campaign organisation, a sewage pollution alert means "storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours" and a "pollution risk forecast or incident alert" means there is potential for sewage to be in the area.
While most of those 41 incidents have since cleared, there are still a handful of active pollution incidents at some Cornish beaches even though it has not rained for six days. According to the SAS's Safer Seas & Rivers Service map, Portreath on the north coast along with Pentewan and Porthpean near Mevagissey in St Austell Bay still have sewage pollution warnings in place.
Seaton / Downderry in South East Cornwall also had a similar alert in place yesterday (Thursday January 16) but it has now cleared.
Taking to his LinkedIn page, Andy Snapes, chairman and founding partner of Truro-basedenvironment consultancy firm Ward Williams, has been keeping a tally of how many days without rain sewage has continued to be dumped into the sea.
In an angry post, in which he tagged Cornwall's six MPs as well as Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and CornwallLive's local democracy reporter Lee Trehwela, he wrote: "Can you believe it? We are now at day six without rain of any description. What 'exceptional circumstances' can possibly prevail to allow South West Water to continue to fill the sea with sh*t at poor Portreath?"
He added: "You have to question how South West Water are being allowed to get away with such flagrant disregard for the law. We were promised so much by this new Government, but what is abundantly clear is that our Teflon coated water companies continue to stick up two fingers whilst polluting for profit remains the order of the day."
South West Water said they would not comment on Mr Snapes' post or the points he raises. However, the utility company explained that Cornwall had intermittent and heavy rain at the beginning of the year, which overwhelmed the system.
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They said that the sewage overflow network then kicked in, meaning sewage was allowed to be discharged into our rivers and oceans so it would not back up into people's homes and businesses.
With regards to Portreath, Pentewan and Porthpean's sewage outlet, SWW said the three sites had been slow to recover from the heavy rain because of slow drainage issues, made worse by a high water table and ground water infiltration meaning the sewers in those locations had stayed full for days after the last heavy rainfall.
SWW said the same issue had been highlighted at Seaton but had been resolved by today (Friday, January 17). Pennon, which owns SWW, recently announced plans to deliver £3.2bn investment across the South West, Bristol, Bournemouth and Sutton and East Surrey over the next five years.
At the time of the announcement last month, Susan Davy, Pennon CEO said: "The news from Ofwat means that we have been given the green light to invest a record £3.2bn level over the next five years. This is on top of the £1.2bn we've already invested in our assets recently.
"We’re serious about making a difference now and in the future – our customers rightly deserve to see real change which we are already delivering. At the same time, we’re here to support customers to use less water, save more money as we do more than ever to support anyone struggling to pay their bill."
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