Sewage in Lincolnshire surf breaks!

I have to admit I was shocked to hear the news given to us by the team at Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), that during 7 months of the year Anglian water are discharging partially treated sewage into the North Sea off Lincolnshire's coastline!

They have been officially allowed to turn their Ultra Violet (UV) treatment off during the off tourist season since 07/04/2003. The UV treatment is suspended between 30th of September to 01st May each year.

Their rational for this move is based on a claim that no-one uses the water during these months!!....I personally know a whole lot of local surfers that would disagree with Anglian waters claim and theres a host of kayakers, kitesurfers, beach users, chalet owners, local businesses and more who'd back us up.

From the information I've been given it looks like there are two sewage treatment works, one in Cleethorpes and one in Mablethorpe pumping partially treated waste water (sh*te to you and me) into our seas during Oct-Apr each year. This renders the local "Blue Flag" awards meaningless.

What we'd like to do is rally Lincolnshire surfers along with any other beach and water users who oppose Anglian waters actions and work with SAS to support their efforts to have the UV treatment turned on year round by using the Legislative power of the EU bathing water directive against Anglian water. To do this we need to start with supplying recent photographs of people using the sea (ideally with a digital date) which SAS will use to prove that the water authority claims are ridiculous.

So please show your support by posting your lincolnshire beach pictures (of actual water use, surfing, kitesurfing, kayaking etc- or pictures showing evidence of sewage, waste, effluent on the beach) taken during Oct-April from 2003 to the present day, onto either the Lincs surf club Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=photos&ref=ts&gid=65707202165

, or post comments/views on the Facebook wall, or to this blog, spread the word online or add shots to the EH image gallery http://www.extremehorizon.com/surf-shop/surfers_gallery.html

I will endeavour to keep you up to date with Feedback from SAS and let you know if theres anything else we need to do further down the line.

Just so you know what Anglian water are letting us surf in and what the potential risks are, heres the facts:

• In totally untreated wastewater (i.e. raw sewage) there are on avearge 5 million bacterial pathogens (that are potentially hamful to humans) per 100ml of water.

• In secondary treated wastewater (which is what Anglian water will be pumping out at Newton Marsh and Mablethorpe plants) there are 0.5 million per 100ml

• In tertiary (UV) treated wastewater (quality of UV treatement does vary from company to company) the level of potentially harmful bacterial pathogens is on average about 30 per 100ml! Added to this, the science suggests that those 30 have been so impacted by the treatment that they are ineffective and cannot cause human infection.

• It has been shown that it can only take one bacterial pathogen to cause infection and therefore make water users sick. For further info on SAS's stance on this and the illnesses that are on the prowl! have a look at this page on their website http://sas.org.uk/campaign/sewage_and_sickness/protecting_your_health.php

What diseases can I catch from sewage-polluted water?

The most common diseases caught from surfing or swimming in sewage-polluted water are gastroenteritis (often resulting in diarrhoea and vomiting) or ear, nose and throat infections. As well as these, pathogens in sewage such as Hepatitis A and E. coli 0157 can cause much more serious, potentially life threatening, illnesses.

PICTURE: Lets stop this from happening at our beaches!!