Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Beware of the sewage
The Guardian carries a feature on the crisis facing our beaches and waterways, as more and more raw sewage is discharged there.
The paper says that between 15 May and 30 September last year, sewage was dumped into designated bathing waters more than 5,000 times.
The paper says that between 15 May and 30 September last year, sewage was dumped into designated bathing waters more than 5,000 times.
There were an average of 825 sewage spills every single day into England’s waterways in 2022.
In the north west, United Utilities discharged untreated sewage almost 70,000 times last year, while Severn Trent Water discharged sewage through storm overflows 44,765 times in the same period.
In just a single eight-day stretch, Southern Water dumped more than 3,700 hours’ worth of sewage at 83 bathing water beaches.
As a result the country’s most popular beach destinations have been suffering. Earlier this week eight beaches on the Fylde coast – including the iconic Blackpool Central – were shut to the public after a storm and heavy rain led to a massive sewage discharge by United Utilities.
Wales-on-line takes up the story this side of the border, focussing on the wildlife haven at Bryngarw Country Park near Bridgend.
They say that just two miles away from meadows, mature woodland and gardens, where you will see dippers and kingfishers diving for their supper in the rive Garw, on 325 out the 365 days in a year, everything households flush into their toilets and tip down their sinks is allowed to flow untreated for thousands of hours a year into this idyllic waterway.
As a result the country’s most popular beach destinations have been suffering. Earlier this week eight beaches on the Fylde coast – including the iconic Blackpool Central – were shut to the public after a storm and heavy rain led to a massive sewage discharge by United Utilities.
Wales-on-line takes up the story this side of the border, focussing on the wildlife haven at Bryngarw Country Park near Bridgend.
They say that just two miles away from meadows, mature woodland and gardens, where you will see dippers and kingfishers diving for their supper in the rive Garw, on 325 out the 365 days in a year, everything households flush into their toilets and tip down their sinks is allowed to flow untreated for thousands of hours a year into this idyllic waterway.
That is because two of Wales' most overused combined sewer overflows are less than a park run away upstream of this popular spot for walkers and families:
These outlets are among hundreds around Wales that are a regrettable legacy of the UK's largely Victorian sewer network. When the system can't cope because of high rainfall or other reasons, the excess simply tips out into waterways, rivers and seas around Wales through the overflows.
In steep sided valleys like the Garw, the network comes under additional pressure when water run off from the land finds its way into the sewers. Filled with the combined flushing of toilets, emptying of sinks and run off from roads and fields, the sewer network cannot cope and releases its diluted filthy excess into local rivers and streams.
Welsh Water has monitors that allow the water company to keep track of how much of this bacteria-filled water is pouring into local watercourses. And its figures from 2022 show the combined sewer overflows (CSO) at Pont-y-Rhyl and Llangeinor upstream of Bryngarw Country Park were the most heavily used in Wales.
Just two and four miles up the road respectively, these pipes poured out raw sewage for a total of 7,804 and 7,784 hours each respectively in 2022. This adds up to 325 days of the year each where they are continuously spewing out waste water.
This faeces, flushed wet wipes and urine all run down the Garw, through the country park until it joins the River Ogmore. From there it flows through the centre of Bridgend before it is discharged into the sea next to Ogmore beach and the Merthyr Mawr nature reserve. The area of coast this near constant stream of poo is flowing into a few miles from the popular seaside spot of Porthcawl.
Professor Steve Ormerod, a professor of ecology at Cardiff University, explains why all this matters:
“Sewage is a combination of sanitary waste, nutrients, things that go through water treatment without being removed,” he said. And that's things like pharmaceuticals, so all of the drugs that we take, the pet flea treatments we give to our dog and rabbit and all of that. So it's a whole cocktail of things that come from wastewater, wastewater treatment removes a lot of that, but not all of it.
“And when it does get into the river environment, it's a combination of reduced oxygen concentrations, increased organic loadings, some toxic components, and that includes things like antibiotics. Some of the effects we understand very well but there are still significant unknowns about things like plastics and pharmaceuticals that are reaching the river environment, we don't fully understand what the effects of wildlife could be.”
That issue of antibiotic resistance is something that Professor Ormerod says really “scares” him. He said: “The one that scares me the most is the issue of antimicrobial resistance. So if you've got antibiotics leaking into the river environment, or the marine environment, there is a risk of antimicrobial resistance developing in bacteria and potentially in organisms.
“Some research came out of Exeter University probably about four or five years ago, which suggested that if you are a wild swimmer, or surfer, you are a greater probability of having antimicrobial resistant bacteria in your gut, by comparison with other people.
“It's scary, isn't it? So that implies either you are ingesting those bacteria, or you've ingested the antibiotics that have then caused that change in your own system?
“Antimicrobial resistance is one of the really big issues I think societally we've got to face going forward. And if we've got that material, reaching surface waters through wastewater treatment, that to me is a scary one.”
The plastics from flushed items like wet wipes are also causing real concerns. A study Professor Ormerod at Cardiff Uni found that 50%of insects in the river Taff for example have plastic inside them with another study finding that birds living on river banks are ingesting plastic at the rate of hundreds of tiny fragments a day.'
This is the result of decades of underinvestment in our sewage infrastructure, and it is destroying out environment. If we were to try and address all 2000 combined sewer overflows in Wales, the cost would be somewhere between nine and 14 billion pounds, which is about £5,000 per person, to put right.
These outlets are among hundreds around Wales that are a regrettable legacy of the UK's largely Victorian sewer network. When the system can't cope because of high rainfall or other reasons, the excess simply tips out into waterways, rivers and seas around Wales through the overflows.
In steep sided valleys like the Garw, the network comes under additional pressure when water run off from the land finds its way into the sewers. Filled with the combined flushing of toilets, emptying of sinks and run off from roads and fields, the sewer network cannot cope and releases its diluted filthy excess into local rivers and streams.
Welsh Water has monitors that allow the water company to keep track of how much of this bacteria-filled water is pouring into local watercourses. And its figures from 2022 show the combined sewer overflows (CSO) at Pont-y-Rhyl and Llangeinor upstream of Bryngarw Country Park were the most heavily used in Wales.
Just two and four miles up the road respectively, these pipes poured out raw sewage for a total of 7,804 and 7,784 hours each respectively in 2022. This adds up to 325 days of the year each where they are continuously spewing out waste water.
This faeces, flushed wet wipes and urine all run down the Garw, through the country park until it joins the River Ogmore. From there it flows through the centre of Bridgend before it is discharged into the sea next to Ogmore beach and the Merthyr Mawr nature reserve. The area of coast this near constant stream of poo is flowing into a few miles from the popular seaside spot of Porthcawl.
Professor Steve Ormerod, a professor of ecology at Cardiff University, explains why all this matters:
“Sewage is a combination of sanitary waste, nutrients, things that go through water treatment without being removed,” he said. And that's things like pharmaceuticals, so all of the drugs that we take, the pet flea treatments we give to our dog and rabbit and all of that. So it's a whole cocktail of things that come from wastewater, wastewater treatment removes a lot of that, but not all of it.
“And when it does get into the river environment, it's a combination of reduced oxygen concentrations, increased organic loadings, some toxic components, and that includes things like antibiotics. Some of the effects we understand very well but there are still significant unknowns about things like plastics and pharmaceuticals that are reaching the river environment, we don't fully understand what the effects of wildlife could be.”
That issue of antibiotic resistance is something that Professor Ormerod says really “scares” him. He said: “The one that scares me the most is the issue of antimicrobial resistance. So if you've got antibiotics leaking into the river environment, or the marine environment, there is a risk of antimicrobial resistance developing in bacteria and potentially in organisms.
“Some research came out of Exeter University probably about four or five years ago, which suggested that if you are a wild swimmer, or surfer, you are a greater probability of having antimicrobial resistant bacteria in your gut, by comparison with other people.
“It's scary, isn't it? So that implies either you are ingesting those bacteria, or you've ingested the antibiotics that have then caused that change in your own system?
“Antimicrobial resistance is one of the really big issues I think societally we've got to face going forward. And if we've got that material, reaching surface waters through wastewater treatment, that to me is a scary one.”
The plastics from flushed items like wet wipes are also causing real concerns. A study Professor Ormerod at Cardiff Uni found that 50%of insects in the river Taff for example have plastic inside them with another study finding that birds living on river banks are ingesting plastic at the rate of hundreds of tiny fragments a day.'
This is the result of decades of underinvestment in our sewage infrastructure, and it is destroying out environment. If we were to try and address all 2000 combined sewer overflows in Wales, the cost would be somewhere between nine and 14 billion pounds, which is about £5,000 per person, to put right.
That is beyond the power of water companies to sort out on their own, and so government must step in, and they need to do so very soon.
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