ONLY one beach in the Isle of Man out of 19 tested has been given the Marine Conservation Society’s top recommendation for bathing.
The annual MCS survey of Britain’s beaches showed that only Derbyhaven beach has met its rigorous testing standards and described officially as being of “excellent water quality”.
However, the survey also showed that five beaches on the Island failed the minimum legal water quality standard compared to three last year. The official MCS description of the beaches at Douglas Central, Gansey, Garwick, Laxey and Port Grenaugh is “bad water quality - swimming not advised.”
Rachel Wyatt of the MCS said that the IRIS sewage treatment scheme, which went partially online in 2004, was “still not delivering the bathing water improvements that MCS expected.” She highlighted that the estimated completion cost of ?170 million equated to around ?2,300 per person.
“However, the new IRIS Regional Sewage Treatment Strategy, which will see the construction of new sewage treatment plants at Ramsey, Peel and Laxey and a new replacement sewage treatment plant at Kirk Michael, will MCS hope, bring the long expected improvements to bathing water quality at some point in the future.”
Every summer the MCS samples sea water from bathing beaches to test whether it is safe for swimming. Samples are usually taken once a week and tested for bacteria known to cause illness and measured against two European standards.
MCS then grades each beach on one of four different levels - “Recommended” (MCS standard for excellent water quality); “Guideline” (EC standard for good quality water); “Basic Pass” (EC minimum standard for water quality) and “Fail” (bad water quality, swimming not advised).
The MCS sampled 19 different beaches in the Isle of Man with one being given the “Recommended” standard for excellent bathing water quality. However, five beaches were given the lowest rating - the “Failed” standard which is defined as “bad water quality - bathing not advised.”
None of the Island’s beaches achieved the “Guideline” standard. However, a number were graded with a “Basic Pass” - Castletown, Douglas Broadway, Douglas Summerhill, Fenella Beach Peel, Glen Wyllin, Jurby, Kirk Michael, Peel, Port Erin, Port Soderick, Port St Mary and Ramsey.
This year just over half of UK bathing beaches have been recommended by MCS for excellent water quality. In total, 769 beaches were sampled in the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man from May to September 2009.
MCS added, “Over the past three years there has been a shift in the water quality trend on UK beaches. For several years from 2001 there was a steady improvement, which peaked in 2006, when we recommended 62.5% of Britain’s beaches for excellent bathing water quality. Since then bathing water quality has declined.”
The reason has been put down to the very wet summers of 2007, 2008 and 2009 which were the wettest since 1914, increasing pollution from combined sewer outflows and swept pollutants like farm fertiliser, livestock waste, street debris and petro-chemicals from the land into rivers and the sea.
This year 55% of the UK bathing beaches met the MCS “Recommended” standard for excellent bathing water quality, a slight improvement (4.6%) on the previous year but well down on the peak years.
In 1987, comforted by the visible improvement of our beaches, the Wakefield’s passed on their “Golden List’ to the Marine Conservation Society. 23 years on, it’s still published as MCS recommended beaches in the Good Beach Guide. It’s used by over half a million people and is a core part of our campaign for Clean Marine.
“The campaign is already a massive success and we are now able to recommend twice the number of beaches we could ten years ago. Illness risks associated with sea swimming are now considerably lower and water quality is regularly tested during the summer at 769 beach UK beaches.
Today, poor water quality is often linked with heavy rainfall, which can flush pollution from farmland and streets, and overwhelm sewers so that untreated sewage is discharged into rivers and the sea. Recent wetter summers have made this type of pollution worse.
“By 2015 MCS wants to recommend at least 75% of all beaches tested for water quality in the UK. For this to happen, we need to stop sewer overflow pipes discharging sewage under anything except true emergency flood conditions.
“We also need to dramatically reduce polluting run-off from farmland and roads, with the introduction of better farm management practices and sustainable urban drainage systems.”
Swimming in water contaminated by sewage can lead to gastroenteritis, acute febrile respiratory illness and ear, nose and throat infections. MCS says that between 1.2 and 2.2 million cases of stomach upsets each year in England and Wales could be related to poor bathing quality water.
