news release
    5th Aug 2005

Surfers Urge Environment Agency To Get Behind Them On Brighton Sewage Plan

Campaigners from Surfers Against Sewage actioned outside the Environment Agency on Wednesday the 3rd of August at 10am calling on them to support full sewage treatment for Brighton and Hove.

SAS campaigners arrived at the EA offices in Worthing to deliver a larger than life copy of the discharge consent currently lodged by Southern Water at the EA. The words ‘requires UV treatment’ were stamped across the front as a sign of SAS’ wishes.

SAS believe the EA should support our campaign to ensure UV disinfection is applied to the Southern Water application, both in terms of improving bathing water quality and in the interests of sustainability.

If the EA were to endorse the Southern Water application as it currently stands, it would be giving its approval to wasting millions of gallons of wastewater that, with an extra level of treatment, could be reused.

This would not be good environmental practice, especially at a time when the Southern Water region needs to be conserving water and planning for a future where water shortages are increasingly more likely.

Recent figures from DEFRA have shone further light on the cost of providing an extra level of treatment. SAS now believe the cost of adding UV could be as low as £1 ½ million. Plans are to build a new long sea outfall costing £4 million, but the current long sea outfall could instead be used to discharge UV treated effluent. This could allow an overall saving on the project of £2 ½ million.

Richard Hardy SAS Campaigns Director says “In the interests of sustainability and bathing water quality, the EA should be requiring Southern Water to add UV to the proposed secondary level treatment process. In addition, the EA should insist on all sewage and waste water treatment schemes to reuse not waste water, as part of an overall strategy to conserve water.”

Following the action SAS met with Environment Agency staff to discuss this proposal. We welcomed such an opportunity and will continue to ensure the interests of recreational water users are heard in with this proposal.

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