A warning to water users has been issued today by clean water advocates Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) to be vigilant when using South Coast beaches over the coming days because of small quantities of fuel oil being found on west facing beaches at the moment.

Whilst only small quantities are currently affecting some beaches, the oil, being fuel oil is extremely heavy and therefore hard to break down and any clean up operation will need to be done by hand and shovels so could therefore be very time consuming.

The clean up is currently being co-ordinated by Cornwall County Council's Emergency Planning team and we would urge water users to contact them if they come across any beaches, which they find to be affected.

There is no clear-cut answer as to where the oil has come from, and though unlikely to be from the Prestige oil tanker disaster in Spain this cannot yet be ruled out. It will be another few days before the source of the oil will be known. Oil samples taken by Local Authorities have been sent to the Marine Coastguard Agency's Counter Pollution branch for further analysis.

Older oil tankers, particularly single hulled tankers which have predominately been responsible for the major world oil pollution incidents are facing new more rigorous checks this week by French and Spanish authorities following the Prestige disaster. If there is doubt of a ship's seaworthiness then dangerous ships could be expelled from their exclusive economic zones which stretch 200 miles out to sea.

SAS have some concerns that any single hulled tankers currently heading to these zones may now be flushing out their tanks of oil residues before entering these zones to avoid any potential confrontation with the authorities.

Richard Hardy, Campaigns Assistant at SAS says: "Whilst only small quantities of oil are currently being found it is vital that the source is identified so further action can be taken. The recent oil disaster in Spain and now the reports of pollution on local beaches highlight the importance of having international legislation that prevents old, single hulled tankers from sailing on the international seas at a much earlier date than the current 2015 deadline. These are essentially glorified bake beans cans carrying environmentally damaging cargoes that should already be on the scrap heap of history".

For further information please contact Richard or Vicky on Tel: 01872 553001 or Mobile 07817 401480.

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