A sewage leak that protesters allege turned a Cornish beach into a public health danger on Sunday is the tenth time in three months and the twelfth time this year that the beach has been poisoned by effluent, it was claimed tonight.
Yesterday morning, the brown tide was captured on camera in Trevaunance Cove in St Agnes, Cornwall, leaving locals and surfers “horrified.”
In a video that has since gone viral and is startling. A vast swath of water can be seen sweeping across the lovely cove, turning the waters from turquoise to muddy brown.
The foul-smelling water was generated by a storm overflow that was “briefly triggered,” according to South West Water. It resulted in the beach’s closure and a sewage pollution notice.
Now it can be discovered that this weekend’s spill was the beach’s tenth sewage or pollution notice in only three months, and its twelfth this year.
Cherilyn Mackrory, Conservative MP for Truro and Falmouth, added that brown water was not from sewage. South West stated that the majority of the water was agricultural runoff.
The assertions, however, have not deterred campaigners from pressing the minister to take harsher action against “profiteering water firms” poisoning Britain’s water supply.
St. Agnes-based environmental organization Surfers Against Sewage issued the appeal.
Amy Slack, the organization’s head of campaigns and policy, told MailOnline: ‘The St Agnes pollution disaster is a disgusting example of how our water sector has been allowed to profit at the expense of people and the world for decades.
It was the twelfth alarm at this popular surfing and swimming beach this year due to chronic underinvestment in our drainage infrastructure, while shareholders and directors rake in the dough.
The government’s latest sewage action plan is totally inadequate, and will continue to allow sewage contamination into our rivers for decades.
“We demand that the government conduct an immediate assessment of its sewage action plan, adequately finance the industry regulator in order to hold water firms accountable, and make a sincere effort to eradicate sewage pollution for good.
Otherwise, the spectacles we witnessed yesterday will continue to be a common occurrence along the magnificent British coastline.
Since January, Trevaunance Cove has received a total of eleven sewage alerts, one maintenance notice, and one pollution risk warning, per the monitoring app Safer Seas and Rivers.
The digital tracking program indicates that seven beaches in Cornwall still have sewage warning signs posted.
South West Water admitted that they had allowed sewage to be pumped into the sea as part of a “controlled release,” but they denied that the brown color was entirely due to effluent, claiming that “other factors contributed,” such as “mud in the water dislodged by heavy rain flowing into the area from a nearby stream and runoff from agricultural land.”
A business representative noted, “While the storm overflow at St Agnes activated briefly on Sunday (30 October) after heavy rain, this was a short duration spill and is unlikely to have caused the degree of discoloration seen in the video.”
‘On this occasion, we believe that other causes contributed to the discoloration, such as mud in the water displaced by heavy rain from a nearby creek and runoff from agricultural land.
As part of our continued dedication to maintaining and enhancing the natural environment, we continue to boost investment in the region’s infrastructure.
This year, the South West has experienced the drastic changes in weather patterns brought on by climate change, as evidenced by the August declaration of drought in the region. As a result of these changes, we are now witnessing more extreme weather patterns than ever before, and the South West experienced one of its warmest and driest years on record this past year.
As well as extended periods of extremely hot weather, we have experienced substantial localized rainfall that has not been able to seep into the parched ground, causing significant volumes to pour into our network and potentially triggering our storm overflows.
In a tweet, Ms. Mackrory said, “Rigorous testing this morning has proved that yesterday’s brown water at #StAgnes was NOT the result of #sewage.” The @EnvAgency has verified the testing. It was runoff from the fields atop the cliffs as a result of heavy rainfall. All spills are unacceptable.’
A lifeguard at the beach described the odor as “unbearable” after the most recent leak at St. Agnes, a tranquil Cornish resort, terrified the people.
The chairman of the St Agnes Surf and Lifesaving Club, Joel Henthorn, stated that when the pollution began at approximately 9 a.m., there were toilet paper remnants running onto the beach.
The water was murky, foaming, and reeked of sewage, he reported to the BBC. It was awful, and the stench was intolerable.
The beach was in a terrible state, so we designated it red for the protection of the public.
Due to safety concerns, families and children enjoying their half-term break were forced to leave the water.
Mr. Henton continued, “It’s such a tragic scenario, especially in a site like this that was supposed to be safe for swimming.”
In September and October, a total of four alerts were issued for the beach in recent weeks.
One business owner in St. Agnes, who wished to remain anonymous, described the situation as “horrific” and expressed concern about the impact the leak could have on tourism in the attractive seaside locale.
The proprietor of the firm told MailOnline, ‘It was just horrific.’ The village’s ancient sewage system just cannot handle the quantity of residents. Currently, the situation is horrible.
‘Last night on Twitter, I saw hundreds of people saying they wouldn’t visit St. Agnes again – I don’t believe that for a second, but it’s still heartbreaking to witness.’
This year, British water corporations have been criticized for allowing millions of gallons of untreated sewage to poison the country’s waters.
Although it is unlawful to dump sewage in many situations, if water overflows become too full, water companies have little alternative but to release sewage into the ocean to make room.
Regular dumping of sewage into the water is detrimental to marine life and poses a risk to humans due to the pathogenic bacteria it can contain.
The latest instance drew a fierce outcry on social media, with some people claiming the Cornwall release left them “speechless.”
Some individuals regarded it as “unbelievable” and “really horrible.”
Another individual commented, “It’s heartbreaking to watch that; South West Water, please stop this sewage dumping.”
A representative for South West Water stated on Sunday that the region had experienced “dramatic shifts in weather patterns brought on by climate change,” with the region experiencing a drought in August.
The official from South West Water continued, “As a result of these changes, we are now experiencing more extreme weather patterns than ever before, and this year the South West experienced one of its driest and warmest years on record.”
As well as extended periods of extremely hot weather, we have experienced substantial localized rainfall that has not been able to seep into the parched ground, causing significant volumes to pour into our network and potentially triggering our storm overflows.
The company cited this as the reason for the spill at St. Agnes on Sunday, adding that it would “continue to boost investment” in the area’s infrastructure to protect the environment from future spills.
Since 2016, water providers have spent more than nine million hours pumping untreated sewage into Britain’s oceans and rivers, it was discovered in August.
Environment Agency data reveal the astounding amount of pollution dumped into tourist and swimming destinations.
At the time of publication, Labour advised that the actual amount of hours will likely be substantially higher.
Since 2016, raw sewage has been dumped into the oceans and rivers of the United Kingdom for at least 9,427,355 hours, according to the data.
It also revealed that the number of monitored discharge hours increased by 2,553% between 2016 and 2021.
In 2016, the Environment Agency recorded only 100,533 hours of sewage discharge.
This number skyrocketed to 2,667,452 by 2021.
Contact has been made with South West Water for comment.