The coast is mostly clear but alerts at two beaches
QUALITY OF WATER AT LOCATIONS ONLY RATED ‘SUFFICIENT’
Reporter THE warm weather is approaching and you might be looking forward to heading down to the beach for a dip to cool down.
Despite the fact the North East coast generally has perfectly clean water, two beauty spots have been marked out as having pollution issues: Cullercoats bay and Spittal beach near Berwick.
According to the Environment Agency, the water quality at the two spots is “sufficient”. This means it’s safe to swim in, but has the lowest ranking possible before bathers are warned against going in.
The waters are continually monitored between May and September to make sure they’re clean enough for people to safely swim in.
As the new bathing season gets under way and testing starts again, North Tyneside Council and Northumberland County Council say they are committed to improving the water quality at the two sites.
Cullercoats is one of Tyneside’s most popular summer spots and it’s not uncommon to see people jumping into the sea from the piers on hot days.
In 2017 bathers were warned on six occasions not to go swimming because of a short-term spike in harmful bacteria, and it’s the only beach on that stretch of coast not to have a “good” or “excellent” rating.
Northumbrian Water haven’t identified precisely why pollution levels have spiked, but they suspect heavy rainfall and misconnected sewage plumbing have played a role.
During 2017, warnings against getting in the water because of short-term increases in pollution levels were issued 25 times for Spittal.
The Environment Agency says Spittal is vulnerable to pollution when heavy rain water washes faecal matter from farming land in to the River Tweed – this drifts down to the nearby beach.
Both beaches still meet minimum standards and are usually safe to swim in, but agencies are working hard to get them up to the same level as the rest of the North East’s coast. Gordon Reid from the Environment Agency said: “The North East remains a beacon for bathing water excellence with a real success story of drastic improvements over the past 20 years, but there is always work to be done and we are not complacent.” A Northumbria Water spokesperson said: “The North East has a fantastic coastline, with every one of our 34 bathing waters passing seawater quality standards in 2017. “At Cullercoats, we are continuing to work closely with North Tyneside Council and the Environment Agency, exploring a range of potential reasons why the quality levels dipped last year, in the hope that, together, we can bring them back to the ‘Good’ standard achieved in previous years. “Everyone can play their part in helping by keeping our beaches tidy, only flushing toilet paper, pee and poo down the loo and by not putting grease and fat down drains.” A spokesperson for North Tyneside Council said they have an “ambition” to get the Cullercoats rating up to ‘good’ in the next year or two and then continue making progress towards ‘excellent.’ Commenting on continuing work to improve standards at Spittal, a Northumberland County Council said: “Failure to meet the excellent water quality enjoyed elsewhere on the coast is a long-standing issue, with quality requirements also having increased in recent years.” Council spokesman