More than 40 beaches in Cornwall have been hit with sewage pollution warnings after a weekend of torrential rain. The warnings today, Monday, January 6, come after Cornwall and the South West saw heavy rain for most of the weekend.
Charity and campaign group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) has warned people a shocking number of Cornwall’s beaches and swimming areas may be contaminated with sewage and pollution. Their interactive map warns that sewage has been discharged at a large proportion of Cornwall’s beaches, 41 in total.
South West Water’s bathing water quality map also shows that much of the Cornish coastline has been affected by overflows. This means that sewage has been discharged into the sea. Below we have a list of the latest beaches polluted by sewage.
Cornwall and the South West was battered by torrential rain yesterday, Sunday, January 5, as forecasters at the Met Office issued a number of weather warnings. The Devon-based forecasters said heavy rainfall may see localised flooding.
Sewage dumps are often blamed on heavy rainfall as overflows prevent drains from being overwhelmed. According to SAS, a sewage pollution alert means “storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours” and a “pollution risk forecast or incident alert” means there is potential for sewage to be in the area.
According to the Safer Seas & Rivers Service map, the following beaches in Cornwall have sewage pollution warnings in place:
- Kingsand
- Portwrinkle
- Downderry
- Seaton
- Milendreath
- East Looe
- Readymoney Cove
- Shorthorn Beach
- Duporth
- Pentewan
- Polstreath
- Portmellon
- Gorran haven Little Perhavern
- Porthluney
- Gyllyngvase
- Swanpool
- Porthoustock
- Coverack
- Polurrian Cove
- Porthleven Sands
- Perranuthnoe
- Long Rock
- Porthcurno
- Sennen
- Mexico Towans
- Godrevy Towans
- Gwithian Towans
- Portreath
- Porthtowan
- Trevaunance Cove
- Crantock
- Fistral South
- Fistral North
- Mawgan Porth
- Harlyn Bay
- Trevone Bay
- Polzeath
- Trebarwith Strand
- Crackington Haven
- Widemouth Sand
- Crooklets
Some use of storm overflows is permitted, to avoid sewer networks becoming overwhelmed and risking sewage backing up into homes and businesses. However, it has been alleged that many water companies are using storm overflows far more regularly than they ought to and people are becoming increasingly fed up with the regular occurrences.