Huge number of sewer discharges revealed
MAP SHOWS SCALE OF CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE IN NW WALES
ANORTH Wales beach was contaminated by human waste due to a sewage discharge from a nearby sewer overflow.
A pollution alert was issued for Traeth Benllech on Anglesey in a Surfers Against Sewage map that tracks combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and pollution risk forecasts (PRFs).
The alert last week stated that sewage had been discharged from a sewer overflow at the location within the past 48 hours.
Combined sewer overflows are safety release valves that pump out human waste from the sewage system into rivers or the sea during periods of heavy rainfall in order to prevent waste from backing up into homes.
They have been the subject of public debate recently after Tory MPs voted against an amendment to the Environment Bill that would have put a legal duty on water companies to stop raw sewage from being dumped into waterways.
Every Conservative MP in north Wales voted against the amendment, apart from Wrexham MP Sarah Atherton who did not register a vote.
Last Tuesday, however, the UK Government U-turned and announced that legal controls will be placed on water companies that dump raw sewage in rivers and the sea after a significant backlash.
An interactive map by the Rivers Trust shows where the sewerage network discharges and overflows into rivers (pictured left). The brown spots mark the locations where spills have occurred in the most recent 12 months where data is available. The larger spots represent the areas where there have been over 100 spills in that period.
The Rivers Trust says that people should “avoid entering the water immediately downstream of these discharges and avoid the overflows (brown circles), especially after it has been raining”.
Swallowing water contaminated by sewage can make people sick as it can contain bacteria such as salmonella and E.coli.
Diseases such as hepatitis A and leptospirosis have also been linked to sewage water.
Dŵr Cymru/Welsh Water are in charge of the sewerage system in Wales and last year raw sewage was dumped into Welsh rivers more than 100,000 times – for almost 900,000 hours.
The discharges happened across more than 2,000 water treatment works and sewer overflows across the Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water network in 2020.
A Dŵr Cymru spokesperson said: “Our combined storm overflows (CSOs) play an essential role in stopping sewage from backing up into customers’ properties during periods of heavy rain. They are designed to release storm waters into rivers or the sea and their operation is highly regulated and closely monitored by our regulator Natural Resources Wales.
“Due to the heavy rainfall seen in the Benllech area on Wednesday, we had a consented spill from our CSO in Benllech. This is fully compliant with our operating permit from NRW.
“We are committed to being open and transparent with our spill data and provide real time spill information on identified beaches, which includes Benllech, to interested groups to notify them of a spill.”