CAMPAIGNERS are calling for urgent action to improve the quality of Scotland’s bathing waters, after two of the most popular resorts failed pollution safety limits.
New statistics have revealed that the Heads of Ayr in South Ayrshire and Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire both breached the European Union Bathing Waters Directive this summer, putting swimmers and surfers at risk of potentially serious infections, including E coli.
Pressure group Surfers Against Sewage have launched a petition calling for ultraviolet disinfection treatment of bathing waters during the summer to be extended to an “all-year-round” action plan to protect the thriving surfing community during the colder months.
Nearly 200 people, mostly Scottish surfers, have signed the petition, which the campaign group plans to hand to the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) said the “unfortunate” failures were largely a result of the exceptionally wet weather over the summer, and it stressed that the vast majority of beaches – 81 out of 83 – met EU standards.
• {http://www.sepa.org.uk/water/bathing_waters/sampling_and_results.aspx|See the results from Sepa here|Results from Sepa}
Scottish Water, which conducts UV treatment at its wastewater plants, said the process also produced significant carbon emissions and would not improve the quality of the seas if pollution was coming directly from farmland.
Andy Cummins, the campaign director of Surfers Against Sewage, said: “We have a really strong community which use the waters all year, and we have been asking SEPA and Scottish Water for UV treatment to be done year-round.
“Now we will be asking the Scottish environment minister,” he said.
The figures for the bathing season, which lasts from May until September, revealed a slight rise in the number of sites meeting the basic “mandatory” criteria for EU compliance, with 49 passing, up from 39 in the previous year.
The number of failed sites halved from four to two in the same period.
However, the number of beaches meeting the most stringent EU “guideline” standards fell to 32, down from 40 in 2011.
A spokesman for Scottish Water said it already conducted UV treatment year-round at some locations, including St Andrews beaches, due to the proximity of shellfish stocks, but had no plans to extend current provision.
He said: “Bathing waters may fail… in some cases due to prolonged heavy rainfall, even if the UV treatment is ensuring our final effluent meets the licence requirements.
“It won’t make a difference if the cause is agricultural run-off,” he added.
A Sepa spokesman said: “While Scotland’s changeable weather patterns and heavy summer rains can have a negative impact on water quality, we will continue to work towards reducing the causes of poor bathing water and ensuring the public is well informed.”
The environment minister, Paul Wheelhouse, admitted that there were “clearly areas where we need to improve – particularly in managing the impacts caused by the intense rainfall that has been a huge factor this year.”