SAS are concerned to learn that Foundation of Environmental Education (FEE) is considering rewriting the rulebook to relax regulations on sewage discharges from Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). Our directors are writing to the director of FEE calling for Blue Flag beach users to be protected from raw sewage discharges and we need you to do the same. Scroll down to sign and send our letter.
We have learned that FEE is considering amending the criteria that beaches have to meet to achieve the coveted Blue Flag status including watering down criterion 28 relating to real-time public warnings when raw sewage is discharged from Combined... Read more
Clean water campaigners Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) are celebrating this bank holiday Monday as Keep Britain Tidy commit to warning systems informing the public after sewage discharges on Blue Flag beaches. This commitment is a direct response to SAS exposing over 25% of the UK’s Blue Flags as currently failing to meet the imperative Blue Flag regulations and failing to warn the public after sewage spills. SAS are confident that next year’s Blue Flag beaches will provide beach lovers with an enhanced beach experience.
On 06/08/10 SAS raised their own brown flags on Blue Flag beaches that they believe have Combined... Read more
Clean water campaigners Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) are calling for 34 British beaches to be stripped of their Blue Flag status. SAS have uncovered information revealing these beaches can not meet the strict standards requiring public warnings after sewage discharges set by the international body responsible for the Blue Flag programme. SAS flew their Brown Flag at Whitburn beach in the North East. Whitburn has a Blue Flag but yet the European Commission (EC) is taking the UK to the European Court of Justice for "too frequent" and "excessive" spills from storm water overflows at Whitburn.
English Blue Flags not meeting the... Read more
This is the last year as a teenager for Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) as next year is our 20th anniversary. Our 19th year was one of our busiest and most successful years campaigning.
2009 started with yet another shipping accident, this time our beaches were covered in timber. Let's hope we escape a serious shipping catastrophe in 2010.
January and February brought a couple of campaign victories. Firstly new regulations came into force to prevent sewage discharge from ships.
And after more than 20 campaign actions in Guernsey, the island finally committed to full sewage treatment! Great news for Guernsey as currently 65,000... Read more
Surfers Against Sewage fighting for first time EU bathing water designation at Portballintrae
Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) campaigners and local surfers hand delivered a petition to the HQ of the Department of Environment Northern Ireland (DOENI) today, 17th November, when this years bathing water results were issued. SAS's Love Your Beach campaign petition, with more than 450 signatures, calls for the popular yet undesignated recreational waters at Portballintrae's Runkerry Strand to receive full EU bathing water designation.
In February 2009 SAS launched their Love Your Beach campaign, which will enable recreational water users to apply for 'bathing water' designation for their recreational... Read more
SAS are pleased to hear the European Commission (EC) has decided to take the United Kingdom to the European Court of Justice over non-compliance with EU environment legislation. SAS has spent the summer highlighting the inadequacies of the UK's sewerage system, specifically with Combine Sewage and Stormwater Overflow drains (CSOs), culminating in the hard-hitting Panorama programme "Britain's Dirty Beaches". The EC is concerned that the urban waste water collecting systems and treatment facilities in London and Whitburn in North East England and have deemed them "inadequate and a threat to human health."
SAS have highlighted time and again concerns over the... Read more
SAS clean water campaigners were joined on Peacehaven Beach by Peacehaven Town Council officials yesterday to start Peaceavens bathing water designation process yesterday, 30th September, which marks the official end to the bathing season in England and Wales. SAS handed over a petition from water users supporting SASs Love Your Beach campaign, which hopes to see the recreational waters at Peacehaven receive full EU bathing water designation.
On Valentines Day this year SAS launched their Love Your Beach campaign, which enables recreational water users to apply for bathing water designation for their recreational water sites, providing them with extra protection and... Read more
SAS campaigners starred in this weeks shocking BBC 1 Panorama programme 'Britain's Dirty Beaches'. The programme showed the nation SAS's exclusive footage of raw sewage discharging into rivers and bathing waters. This is a scene that is replicated in rivers, seas and bathing waters all over the country after heavy rain.
It was the most watched Panorama programme of the year and really hit a nerve across the country. The response we have received since Panorama aired has been fantastic, a mixture of shock at the previously hidden primitive methods of regular sewage disposal and gratitude to SAS for helping Panorama... Read more
Clean water campaigners from Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) are urging all water users to watch Panorama this Monday the 7th of September, BBC1 at 8.30pm. SAS have helped the Panorama team expose the shocking truth that after heavy rain, raw sewage is consistently discharging into our rivers, seas and bathing waters without warning to the public and water users.
SAS Campaign manager Andy Cummins features heavily in the programme and captures the most outrageous footage of a Combined Sewage and Stormwater Overflow drain (CSO) discharging raw sewage into a river. This is the first time this disgusting practice has been highlighted,... Read more
The SAS campaign team has always punched above it's weight. We do this because we are surfers, water users and started out as SAS members and so the campaigns mean as much to us as they does to you. We put in the long hours, determined that each campaign will end in an SAS victory, a victory for surfers, waveriders and water users all over the UK.
We want to do more, but we need your help. We want to extend the SAS campaign team to every corner of the UK coastline. We want to use our greatest resource, YOU, our... Read more
