Warning as sewage released in North Bay
A fresh pollution warning has been issued after untreated sewage was released into the sea at Scarborough’s North Bay beach.
The alert, from the Safer Seas and Rivers Service, run by the charity Surfers Against Sewage, is based on data provided by Yorkshire Water. It said that storm sewage was discharged from a sewer overflow in the North Bay within a 48-hour period in the middle of last week.
There are three sewer overflows that discharge into the sea at various distances from the bathing water and a number more discharging into Scalby Beck at the northern
end of the beach.
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “Our storm overflows at Scalby Mills and Whitby both operated recently
after a period of heavy rain in the local area which led to high flows within the sewer network. As a result, our overflows operated to prevent localised flooding in homes, gardens and the local environment. We continue to work hard to reduce discharges from storm overflows across the region.”
Yorkshire Water told The Scarborough News it is investing £790m to improve rivers and bathing waters across the county, including £137m by 2025 to improve the monitoring of storm overflows.
Scarborough’s South Bay narrowly escaped being downgraded and removed from the safe bathing waters list last year after inspections were halted during the coronavirus pandemic.
South Bay received four ‘Poor’ ratings between 2016 and 2019, however, regulations state that any bathing areas that receive five consecutive years of ‘Poor’ ratings should be removed from the official safe bathing waters list.
No rating was awarded in 2020, due to the pandemic, and so the monitoring restarted in 2021 when it was classified as ‘Sufficient’. In contrast, North Bay received ‘Excellent’ status in 2019 and 2021.
Yorkshire Water data reveals untreated sewage was also released into the sea at Whitby, Robin Hood’s Bay and Sandsend beaches. Sewage was previously released in North Bay on August 22.
In August, the Government said it is taking action to prevent water companies discharging untreated sewage from sewer overflows, but there is mounting public anger at the environmental impact.