Wavelength Surf Magazine – since 1981

These Are The Cornish Beaches Affected By Today’s Raw Sewage Outpourings

Luke Gartside

Whilst much of Cornwall has been enjoying clean fun sized surf today, the large amount of rain has left sewage infrastructure unable to cope, leading to raw sewage pouring into many of our local line-ups.

According to Surfers Against Sewage’s Safer Seas app, which provides users with real time water quality updates, the following beaches have been affected:

While sewage discharge refers to raw, untreated human sewage runoff, diffuse pollution refers to runoff from multiple, often unidentified sources. “When these sources combine,” explains SAS on their website, “they can often have a significant impact on water quality. Examples include road, urban and agricultural run-off and leakage from septic tanks. Contaminants can include pathogens, hydrocarbons, heavy metals and organic substances. Even when individual inputs are quite small, collectively they can be very damaging.”

SAS say that for the hundreds of people who were out surfing at these breaks today, the exposure to pathogens found in the run off has the potential to cause serious health issues including stomach upsets, skin, ear, eye and chest infections, hepatitis and E-coli. Visit their website for a full list of these conditions and their symptoms.

The news has caused anger amongst surfers on social media, who have been demanding for years that South West Water do something about this dangerous and pervasive issue. After a particularly bad outpouring at Godrevy a few years ago we contacted them to ask why this was still happening, particularly when they charge some of the highest water rates in the country. They told us that the outpouring had been caused by a ‘combined sewer overflow’ which, as a way of protecting homes and gardens from sewage overflow, allows excess sewage to run off into rivers and the sea. In addition they assured us that any actual human waste would have been heavily diluted by other surface water.

Hopefully the incidents of illness in this case are low, and the problem clears up quickly, as it looks like there’s going to be waves around all week.

Cover photo: A rainy day at Fistral (not today). By @lugarts