Teamwork will help more Somerset and Dorset bathing waters
Four in five beaches meet minimum standard for bathing water in part of the South West – but group effort is needed to root out all sources of deterioration.
Environment Agency efforts have been focused on Weston-super-Mare this year, including using a hovercraft to sample sediments
Bathing water classifications for the 53 monitored sites in Bristol, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire have been released today, with 83% of sites meeting minimum standards. Last year the area had 49 monitored sites of which 92% met the minimum standard.
The water quality of monitored bathing waters is based on the last four years of sampling results. Classifications run from ‘Poor’, ‘Sufficient’, ‘Good’ to ‘Excellent’, with two-thirds of the Environment Agency’s Wessex area belonging in this highest category.
Public demand saw new inland bathing waters at river locations designated earlier this year at the River Tone French Weir in Taunton, River Frome at Farleigh Hungerford and River Avon at Fordingbridge. All have all been classified as ‘Poor’ based upon the results of their first bathing water season.
The reasons why are multiple, and the Environment Agency is committed to improving water quality at new and existing sites but it will take time, teamwork and community commitment.
Jim Flory, area environment manager for the Environment Agency, said:
It is too easy to point the finger of blame solely at water companies or farmers. The unpopular truth is the sources of deterioration are often many. There are no quick fixes.
New bathing waters came from massive community effort. It will take the same levels of commitment and effort to raise them to the minimum standard expected by the public and beyond.
To improve the River Tone at French Weir Park, a new group made up of the community and partners has been created to address impacts from upstream overflows, surrounding land use and catchment scale pollution. Groups for the other river locations will follow.
Church Cliff Beach at Lyme Regis is also a newly designated site. The location was previously a monitored bathing water until 2016 but was de-designated by request of the town council due to low usage. While sample results remain ‘Poor’, they are better than previously with work to find misconnections from South West Water expected to drive improvement.
A noticeable difference in water quality has been picked up by monitoring during this last season of sampling which affects existing bathing waters. Weymouth Central has dropped classification from ‘Excellent’ to ‘Good’. Meanwhile, Boscombe Pier in Bournemouth rose from ‘Good’ to ‘Excellent’.
Efforts to turn around the ‘Poor’ classification of Weston-super-Mare’s three beaches reached new levels this year. Environment Agency officers clocked up over 130 miles of footfall walking its beaches on a nearly weekly basis, inspecting every pipe, litter, patch of discoloured sand and possible source of pollution. Drone surveys tracked the coastline from the air, using thermal sensitive cameras to find any pollution plumes. A hovercraft took sediment samples from the furthest possible reaches. Seagull numbers were surveyed. Many farms were visited and Wessex Water assets, including the rising main beneath the Tropicana and Black Rock pumping station, continue to be monitored and inspected.
The 2024 statistics on English coastal and inland bathing waters follow testing by the Environment Agency at 450 sites regularly used by swimmers throughout the summer, including 27 new sites designated earlier this year. These tests monitor for sources of pollution known to be a risk to bathers’ health, specifically E. coli and intestinal enterococci.
In total, 92% of bathing waters in England have met minimum water quality standards, with 85% of bathing waters being rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’.
The proportion of ‘Good’ and ‘Excellent’ rated sites has fallen slightly, in part due to the existing water quality of the 27 new bathing water sites designated this year, 18 of which are classified as ‘Poor’. This is not unexpected, as the new sites have not been managed for bathing before, and it takes time to understand and tackle the sources of pollution affecting them.
Without the newly designated bathing waters, 95% of sites would meet minimum standards this year, only slightly down from 96% last year.
Background
- Last year’s statistics showed that 96% of England’s bathing water sites met the minimum standard of Sufficient, while 90% met the highest standards of Good and Excellent.
- 450 bathing waters in England were sampled this year and have been classified as either Excellent, Good, Sufficient or Poor. These classifications and information about water quality will be displayed at each bathing water and on bathing water profiles available to access on the Environment Agency’s Swimfo website.
- The bathing water season runs from May to September every year. The Environment Agency took 7,420 samples during the 2024 bathing season. The Environment Agency takes up to 20 water samples at each of England’s designated bathing waters during the season.
- The sampling programme is set ahead of the start of season to avoid bias and follows a strict protocol to ensure samples are taken consistently in terms of depth of water, location where most bathers are expected and also covering a range of tidal states where safe to sample.
- Other factors which influence bathing water quality can include tides, and physical or environmental changes at a site, with every catchment affected differently.
- Our standards for bathing waters come from guidelines produced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and are science based. They have been adopted by many countries through the EU Bathing Water Directive, which England’s Bathing Water Regulations are based on.