Southern Water Stink
PAUL MCLAUGHLIN
The unmistakable stench of raw sewage once again hung over Bulverhythe last Thursday morning (20 August), after Southern Water began discharging untreated wastewater from its Bexhill and Hastings No. 2 combined sewer overflow (CSO) at 9:18am. The outflow pipe releases the sewage roughly two miles out to sea, but the acrid smell quickly drifted back to shore and lingered across the town for much of the day.
Southern Water attributed the discharge to intense rainfall, explaining that the release was necessary to relieve pressure on the sewer network and prevent backups that could have flooded homes, businesses, and roads. The discharge continued for 4 hours and 44 minutes and resulted in pollutants that are harmful to both swimmers and wildlife being pumped into the sea.
The downpour dumped up to 12mm of rain on Hastings, but the recent hot, very dry weather has left the ground hard and parched. Instead of being absorbed, the rainwater ran off rapidly into the drains, overwhelming the combined sewer system and triggering the overflow.
Under current regulations, water companies are permitted to discharge raw sewage via storm overflows during and after heavy rainfall, provided the rate exceeds 10mm per hour. However, according to the Check-For-Flooding service on the gov.uk website, the Hastings Baldslow gauge recorded just 12mm of rainfall between 4am and 10am on Thursday morning – an average rate of only 2mm per hour – and peaked between 6am-7am at 4.6mm, far below the permitted threshold.
A spokesperson for Southern Water said the company “understands the public concern around storm overflows” and is committed to reducing reliance on them. The water company is investing £1.5 billion as part of its Clean Rivers and Seas Plan and says this has already prevented hundreds of storm overflow releases in its first year. They also have plans to spend more than £100m to upgrade water and wastewater networks in Hastings.
Local MP Helena Dollimore said: “It beggars belief that after just 12mm of rain, Southern Water discharged sewage into our sea, after one of the driest summers on record – yet again violating environmental regulations and polluting our coastline. The Labour Government has already taken important steps to ramp up regulation, fines, monitoring and criminal prosecutions. But we must now go further to fix our broken water system. After an era of extraction, with money siphoned off by shareholders instead of spent maintaining vital infrastructure, we need to see water back under public control.”
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