Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) are highlighting four parts of the Isle of Wight coast where they say “Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location”.
Many will argue that with the lack of heavy rain on the Island in the last 24 hours, Southern Water should not be able to blame the discharges on agricultural run-off.
The areas with SAS warnings are Colwell Bay, Cowes, Ryde and Totland.
Cowes
Pollution Alert: Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.
There are two sewer overflows located on the beach and several more south of the Royal Yacht Squadron in the Medina estuary. There is another sewer overflow discharging in deep water 2km to the east of Cowes.
Ryde
Pollution Alert: Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.
The beach is backed by an esplanade with a swimming pool and canoe lake. There are a number of sewer overflows in the catchment area and one to the west of the pier. There is another sewer overflow 2.7km offshore.
Colwell Bay
Pollution Alert: Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours and bathing not advised today due to the likelihood of reduced water quality.
Molly Newell shared these images taken this morning (Wednesday) at Colwell, clearly showing overflow on the green.
Totland Bay
Pollution Alert: Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.
Southern Water
Southern Water’s Beach Buoy service only shows Totland and Colwell Bay as having an issue, where it states “A Southern Water release may be affecting water quality”.
Update: After this article was published, Beach Buoy was updated and now includes Cowes and Ryde as unverified discharges.
Environment Agency
As with Tuesday, the Environment Agency show only Colwell (on Wednesday) having “Advice against bathing: pollution risk warning” notice.
Update: After this article was published here, EA updated their Website and removed the Colwell warning notice.
Article edit
10.45am 17th Aug 2022 – Photos from Molly Newell added
1.25pm 17th Aug 2022 – Update about BB and EA notices added
Image: bradley dunn under CC BY 2.0
