Warning to not go into sea after pollution leak
A pollution leak has prompted a warning to beachgoers in a part of West Sussex
- Published
A council in West Sussex has warned people not to go into the sea following a pollution leak.
Adur & Worthing Councils said Southern Water (SW) informed them of a leak from a local outfall pipe on Tuesday that resulted in waste being spilled into the sea.
The pollution is believed to affect "the whole of the Adur coastline” from Lancing to Fishersgate, including the River Adur, and potentially Worthing, the authority added.
Southern Water said it was doing all it could to minimise the impact.
Adur & Worthing Councils said the waste was expected to remain in its coastal waters until 11:00 GMT on Thursday.
“The council is urging visitors to the area’s coastline not to go into the water at this time and to take care on the beach in case waste has been washed ashore,” a spokesman said.
Emma Evans, cabinet member for environment and leisure, said the leak was “deeply concerning” and put “residents, visitors and animals at risk”.
“We are demanding answers from Southern Water and assurances that this will not happen again,” she said.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
According to the council, an electrical issue caused two pumps to fail at SW's Shoreham wastewater treatment works, meaning it was unable to release treated waste through its long sea outfall pipe.
Instead, it released screened wastewater through its short sea outfall pipe, which is located about 500m offshore in the Shoreham Harbour area, the council added.
In a statement, SW said: "Our teams worked hard through the night to install a temporary pump, which is releasing flows further out to sea via our long sea outfall. We also we have four tankers transferring flows to a nearby treatment works.
"We are carrying out investigations on environmental impact.
"We are very sorry that this is happening and are doing everything we can to fix the issue and minimise impact."
Councillor Vicki Wells said she expected such infrastructure to be "robust".
“Our communities and environment shouldn’t suffer as a consequence of failing equipment," she said.
“It’s unacceptable for the area’s coastline to be polluted by releases of sewage because pumps have failed.”
The Environment Agency has been informed about the leak.
Follow BBC South East on Facebook, external, on X, external, and on Instagram, external. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk, external.
- Published6 September 2022
- Published20 January 2023
- Published9 November 2022
- Published9 July 2021
