The raw sewage slick (image taken from a plane)
Guernsey’s Report Distorts The Truth And Misleads The Public About Sewage Impacts.
Today Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) and their 9ft Sewer Surfer are again back on the beaches of Guernsey to expose the distorted and misleading information published in the Liquid Waste Strategy report, relating to Guernsey’s continuous untreated sewage discharge policy. Guernsey’s Public Service Department’s recent Liquid Waste Strategy report contains fundamental errors on the impacts of continuous untreated sewage discharge, again risking the reputation of the island; particularly as a tourist destination. SAS maintains its call for the island to treat all its sewage effluent to sufficient levels.
At 1pm SAS campaigners and their 9ft Sewer Surfer will be on Pembroke beach at the west end. Pembroke is currently failing bathing water standards set down over 35 years ago and the report acknowledges its water quality is impacted by the outfall at Belle Greve.
According to SAS, the Public Services Department have produced a flawed Liquid Waste Strategy report recommending the continuation of discharging 16,000 tons untreated sewage daily, via the Belle Greve long sea outfall. Instead of installing the necessary sewage treatment infrastructure, Public Services recommend installing diffusers that will merely whisk up the raw sewage after it has passed through grates to remove the sanitary debris, without removing the harmful pathogens.
The report’s misleading recommendation is based on inaccurate assumptions that fail to take into account the accepted benefits of primary & secondary sewage treatment in the reduction of the number of harmful pathogens contained in effluent.
Point 8.3. from the Liquid Waste Strategy wrongly states “…The provision of primary settlement would remove a percentage of the suspended solids and BOD but would have no significant impact on bacteria…” This is incorrect and overlooks the importance of primary treatment stages. Primary sewage treatment would remove the vast majority of the organic material. This is the first step of responsible sewage treatment and a vital component in reducing the number of harmful pathogens along with their ability to survive in the marine environment.
To clarify, it is accepted that organic material in sewage effluent reduces the effectiveness of the ‘natural UV treatment process’ (sunlight) that the department are promoting as a solution to sanitising Guernsey’s untreated sewage effluent. Organic matter will also actively prolong the life of harmful pathogens in the waters around Guernsey by providing nutrients and protection from predators such as zooplankton. This is precisely why EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91) standards, insist on primary treatment, including the removal of organic matter, as the very bare minimum, a directive Guernsey are supposedly using as a benchmark.
This fundamental mistake undermines the report’s recommendations. The Liquid Waste Strategy document makes numerous questionable statements, which SAS will be challenging at a meeting with Deputy Flouquet on Friday 20th January.
SAS believes the Metoc report, paid for by Guernsey’s residents, contains various additional shortcomings and unsupported recommendations.
The report highlights only 3 bathing waters within the influence of the Belle Greve outfall, including Pembroke. Pembroke is currently failing water quality standards set down over 35 years ago and the report acknowledges the outfall as a potential source of contributing pollution. The effluent impact modelling used by Metoc is commonly used for modelling effluent that has been treated to a much higher level and stripped of the organic matter, so is not an accurate model for the Guernsey outfalls. As we have outlined above, untreated sewage, such as that from Belle Greve, will be more persistent in the marine environment and so the area affected by the Belle Greve outfall may be much more extensive than these three locations. SAS are questioning the modelling data and believe that the impacts from the Belle Greve outfall are felt far further afield than Metoc have suggested. SAS’s beliefs are supported by consistently poor water quality results along Guernsey’s west coast.
The States of Guernsey have a history of reneging on their commitment to responsible waste water strategies when they feel the spotlight has moved on. After securing such a commitment from the States of Guernsey in 2009, SAS have stopped campaigning whilst the Public Services Department identified improved sewage treatment methods for the island. However, the campaign is now back on. Hundreds of SAS supporters posted their disgust on Facebook and twitter at the Public Services strategy earlier this week. Next week in the lead up to the States debate SAS will increase the pressure with multiple campaign actions.
There have already been several hundred Facebook interactions on Wednesday posted on SAS’s & Guernsey’s facebook page, including:
“I’ll not be visiting Guernsey any longer…………raw sewage discharge, no thanks!!”
“Who wants to swim/ surf/ paddle in waters which have had 16,000 tons of raw sewage discharged into them every single day? Most definitely not me. Won’t be visiting any time soon, I prefer my water crap free. This stinks!”
And Twitter too went wild with hundreds more interactions, including:
@eightsmd Avril
“Bad decision. Wrong on every level. Don’t pollute our oceans.”
@LoopyMau Laura Gardner
“Taking the Channel Islands off my to-visit list – there’s no excuse!”
SAS Campaign Director Andy Cummins says: “Discharging 16,000 tons of raw sewage off the coast of Guernsey is an archaic practice. If the Public Service department are successful in selling their strategy Guernsey will stand out internationally as a dirty island. Islanders deserve better sewage treatment and visitors are demanding it.”
Report on the survival of pathogens in the marine environment.
ENTERIC BACTERIA SURVIVAL FACTORS http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00042/15353/12709.pdf
Campaign Highlights So Far
After a packed public meeting with Guernsey’s water sports community SAS launched the campaign and delivered their demands to Minister Bell, Public Services Minister in October 2004
Dec 04, SAS hand in the 2nd largest petition (collected in just over a month) to Minister Bell.
SAS ensured Guernsey’s dumping of 65,000 people’s raw sewage was a national news issue and the hottest topic on the island.
In December 2005 SAS’s Dr Loo arrived on Guernsey to warn of poor water quality results in the future. A warning that came all too true!
In January 2006 SAS campaigners spent 65 hours on the steps of the States of Guernsey in record low temperatures. Campaigners were warmly received by the Guernsey locals.
In January 2006 SAS ended the vigil by launching a sewage counter tracking the billions of gallons of raw sewage and waste water dumped off Guernsey.
January 2007 SAS highlight the States of Guernsey’s attempts to fudge the issue hoping we’ll give up!
September 2007, SAS meet all seaward bound visitors to Guernsey, ensuring they were made aware of exactly what Guernsey does with it’s sewage - dump it into the sea untreated!
Surfing zombies at a States meeting on Halloween 2007. We came within a couple of votes of full sewage treatment that time.
April 2008, in the run up to local elections SAS towed the turd around the island calling on candidates to support SAS’s campaign. The majority of sheriffs supported the SAS campaign for full sewage treatment.
2009 SAS secure clean water commitment for Guernsey
This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2012 at 8:32 am and is filed under Campaigns, Guernsey, News, Sewage and Sickness. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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Marine-based sewage treatment systems are quite acceptable environmentally if there is a long, screened pipe diffusing into a high-volume, rapid current receiving environment. Together with source controls, the marine-based sewage treatment system reduces at least two challenges created by land-based sewage plants: disposing of large volumes sewage sludge and the production of greenhouse gases. Victoria British Columbia has a combination of marine-based sewage treatment and land-based systems that is environmentally and health-wise very adequate. Victoria’s past and present public health doctors confirm that the system works well from health standpoint, and several oceanographers, biologists and engineers confirm that the Victoria marine environment is suitable for such a system. For more information: http://www.rstv.ca
Where does the 16000/day figure come from?
That works out at 4.9cwt/head/day!!!!
They must all have a bowel problem!
SAS appear to have shot themselves in the foot. By staging an advertising stunt at ports that serve Guernsey BEFORE the report has been debated and damaging industry and livelihoods they have turned the Guernsey electorate, and therefore the politicians (there are elections in the spring after all) against them.
The report may have been rejected by the States (the Guernsey parliament) when it was debated but I doubt that will be the case now!!
Shame on you SAS
Hey Paul, the 16,000 Tonnes figure comes directly the States own report on the findings of the Metoc study. As always we ask people to not shoot the messenger, if there was no problem with discharging 16,000 Tonnes of sewage into the waters off Guernsey every day, the States should have no issue with the people of Guernsey and the public as a whole knowing about it.
This is not a new issue, the States have reneged on a commitment to provide sewage treatment that is in line with it’s European counterparts twice since 1997 (2009 and 1997)
History speaks for itself on the subject of water quality, after implementing better sewage treatment beaches in places such as Wales and Cornwall,the confidence and subsequent happiness of tourists has had measurably positive effects on the tourist industry.
We ask you not to shoot the messenger, however we are as ever convinced that improving the sewage treatment systems on Guernsey will not only reduce the risk of bathers becoming ill but will increase the value of Guernsey’s beaches as tourist resources.
Thanks for your interest and interaction,
Team SAS.
Hey Dan, the information and statistics we have used during this most recent part of the Guernsey campaign (SAS have been involved with this issue since 1997 and have been to Guernsey over 20 times since 2004) comes directly from the States own report on the findings of the Metoc study. As always we ask people to not shoot the messenger, if there was no problem with discharging 16,000 Tonnes of sewage into the waters off Guernsey every day, the States should have no issue with the people of Guernsey and the wider public knowing about it.
This is not a new issue, the States have reneged on a commitment to provide sewage treatment that is in line with it’s European counterparts twice since 1997 (2009 and 1997)
History speaks for itself on the subject of water quality, after implementing better sewage treatment beaches in places such as Wales and Cornwall,the confidence and subsequent happiness of tourists has had measurably positive effects on the tourist industry.
We ask you not to shoot the messenger and it is regretful that some people on Guernsey believe we are deliberatley trying to smear it’s good name, however we are as ever convinced that improving the sewage treatment systems on Guernsey will not only reduce the risk of bathers becoming ill (which should be a primary concern for all parties) but will increase the value of Guernsey’s beaches as tourist resources.
Thanks for your interest and interaction,
Team SAS.
i,ve diived in and around the sewage pipe almost daily for 45 years with no effect whatsoever so i suggest S A S concentrate on their own coastline and leave guernsey to sort out our own requirements
Hey Jeff,
As I’m sure you have discovered from our website, SAS are a UK based group and we take responsibility for protecting the oceans, beaches and waves of the UK for all to use safely and sustainably. We campaign across a broad sphere of issues in all corners of the UK. It is great that you have not been ill but the scientific evidence is broad ranging and undisputed on the risks of untreated sewage, we have also received messages from a number of islanders who are sick on a worryingly regular basis and who know people who suffer in the same way. We have absolutely no desire to impact upon the lives of Guernsey people and we urge people not to shoot the messenger. All of the information we have made people aware of over the past weeks has been taken from The States Liquid Waste Strategy report and the independant report from environmental consultants Metoc.
In 2009 SAS celebrated the States Of Guernsey for committing to implement full sewage treatment on the island, which would have brought the island in line with the rest of the UK and Europe, they have now reneged on this commitment.