Surf's up – 'and so is the sewage'

Published on Tuesday 15 September 2009 22:03

SURFERS using a popular bay could be at risk of disease due to a drop in levels of sewage treatment outside the bathing season, it was revealed yesterday.

It has come to light that sewage pumped into Pease Bay in East Lothian, one of Scotland's most popular surfing beaches, is only treated to the highest standards during the bathing season – from 15 May to 15 September.

Outside these dates, an ultra violet disinfection process, which kills certain bacteria, is not used by Scottish Water.

Campaign group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) warned yesterday this means people using the water during the autumn and winter could be at risk of diseases from diarrhoea to meningitis and hepatitis.

Pease Bay is one of the top surfing spots in Scotland and regularly attracts crowds all year round – not just during the summer bathing season.

SAS, which held a protest at Pease Bay yesterday to highlight their concerns, have called on Scottish Water to start using the highest standards of treatment all year round.

Alasdair Steele, SAS Edinburgh representative, said: "Pease Bay has a huge community of surfers and receives great surf, especially outside the bathing season.

"This is when we need full sewage treatment to protect waveriders from potentially harmful bacteria and viruses."

The group also believes that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), which regulates sewage treatment, should carry out a survey of use of the bay, and says they should only allow seasonal variations in sewage treatment at beaches that are not widely used outside the summer.

Scottish Water emphasised that it met the "required environmental standards" all year round.

The Scotsman understands UV treatment is energy intensive – making it costly, and meaning it produces large amounts of carbon emissions. Water companies are under pressure to keep bills low, and to meet emissions reductions targets.

Andy Cummins, campaign manager for SAS, said: "We commend water companies making carbon savings and reducing their energy bills, but not when it's putting water-users' health at risk."

The group previously campaigned successfully against similar seasonal variations in sewage treatment by Northumbrian Water in the north-east of England.

Helen Lennox, Scottish Water's head of corporate affairs, said: "Scottish Water is currently in dialogue with Surfers Against Sewage regarding this matter and we continue to liaise with them in order to identify the best solution for this beach."

She added that the treatment plant at Cove, which feeds into Pease Bay, protected the environment "throughout the year in accordance with required environmental standards".

"This treatment is enhanced during the bathing season, through ultraviolet disinfection," she said.

A Sepa spokeswoman said there were "basic standards for discharges which must be adhered to all year round".

She added: "It is the responsibility of the operator to ensure the treatment system installed is capable of meeting the discharge standards set by Sepa."

Roger Cox: Surfing trip and a sip of seawater put me in hospital

ON 25 July, I went for a surf at Pease Bay. The waves were small, but the sun was shining, there were only about ten other surfers in the water and there was hardly a breath of wind. That lack of wind made the waves nice and glassy, but before long I was praying for a breeze. Why? Because the stench of raw sewage coming from the water was giving me a headache.

As the day wore on and the air and water temperature increased, the smell got worse. I started paddling like a lunatic to avoid taking dribbly little two-foot waves on the head, not because the waves themselves could do me any harm, but because of what I might catch if I opened my mouth. I haven't been back to Pease since.

I've been hospitalised after surfing on the east coast before, so I know not to drink the sea water. In 1998, I spent a week in the infectious diseases unit at Dundee's Ninewells Hospital after a surf off West Sands in St Andrews. To begin with, the doctors thought I had meningitis because I had a lot of the symptoms. They'd got as far as preparing me for a spinal tap procedure before they realised it wasn't meningitis but something else. For the next few days, I slipped in and out of consciousness as my temperature rose and fell like a rollercoaster. Nobody seemed to be able to figure out what was wrong. Eventually, my condition stabilised and I was allowed to go back to uni. Even then the doctors couldn't tell me what I'd had – only that it was "a virus" and that I'd more than likely picked it up in the water.