Southern Water say the releases into the bathing water along the Sandown coast on Sunday was “fully treated, and not sewage”.
Several incidents from Seagrove Bay down to Shanklin are highlighted to have taken place in the last 72 hours, with more detail showing that releases took place between 11:24am and 11:45am on Sunday 17th July.
SW: “Releases were fully treated, and not sewage”
Southern Water told News OnTheWight that they had issues with their power supply on Sunday (which also led the unplanned release) causing a number of ‘false’ alarms to Beachbuoy on Sunday morning.
A Southern Water Spokesperson told News OnTheWight,
“Due to a power outage affecting a water treatment facility in Sandown on the Isle of Wight, fully treated water was released closer to the shore than usual.
“This resulted in an alert on our Beachbuoy system, which provides near real-time information about releases of stormwater or wastewater in bathing areas, from approximately 1.15pm on Sunday. This was not a sewage spill as the water was fully treated. Releases returned to their normal pipe from 12.40pm on Monday.
“Investigations are ongoing to fully understand the circumstances. We continue to work closely with the local authority and Environment Agency.”
Fully treated water is usually released into the sea via a 5km pipe – however, due to the power outage, it was wrongly discharged 1km from the coast.
SW: No further action required
On Wednesday afternoon, SW sent the following update to News OnTheWight,
“Due to a power outage affecting our wastewater treatment works in Sandown on the Isle of Wight, fully treated water was released closer to the shore than usual on Sunday and Monday.
“Following investigations, and coordination with the local authority and Environment Agency, no further action was required and the site is now running as normal.”
See the Beach Buoy Website for further details and the latest releases around the Isle of Wight coast (page down for map and more detail).
Article edit
2.40pm 18th Jul 2022 – SW’s statement updated to read 1.15pm rather than 8pm, as they originally stated.
5.50pm 18th Jul 2022 – SW’s statement updated to include power outage.
2.50pm 20th Jul 2022 – SW update their statement
