Tim Loughton met with senior representatives of Southern Water and Lancing Regeneration Chairman Frances Smith after serious concerns were raised by residents about the presence of sewage in Lancing’s bathing water.
Lancing residents organised a petition through the Lancing Regeneration group calling for an end to sewage in the sea after residents found raw sewage floating offshore.
All sewage is normally screened and treated before being deposited out at sea. However, in extreme weather events, storm water is released through the short outfall to stop sewage backing up into people’s homes. Because to the presence of a combined sewerage system this can mean that the storm water is polluted by sewage. However, even when this occurs Southern Water use 6mm screens to filter any solids out of the outfall which will stop any solids reaching the sea.
Historically, issues with the screening process at Southern Water’s water works had meant that the screens had been breached and solids had passed through but since the issues of 2012 this has not happened. Southern Water did document that their system is designed to ‘overtop’ which only occurs during freak weather events, such as the downpour at the end of July this year. This means that the volume of water is so much that if some of the body of water were not able to escape without being screened, the screen would suffer irreparable damage. Therefore, it is possible that some solids made it into the sea on the one occasion that the overtopping occurred in 2014.
Tim, Frances and Southern Water agreed to convene a multi-agency meeting to deal with four important points:
· To identify where exactly where any solid sewage in the sea is coming from and if possible to stop it.
· To investigate whether solid sewage is finding its way into the gullies in the road.
· To ensure the relevant authority is quickly informed of any solid sewage in the sea and to deploy resources to clean it up quickly.
· To review the current warning signage which can be misleading as it suggests that the beach is dangerous to swim in, even when it is not.
Lancing’s bathing water was monitored throughout the summer by the Environment Agency and at no point failed water quality tests even though pre-emptive warning signs had been put up on more than twenty occasions warning people about possible pollution.