Greenpeace claims unpublished report shows slump in winter beach water quality

Environmental campaigner, Greenpeace, has claimed that bathing water quality at some of England’s highest-rated beaches "declines sharply" during the autumn and winter months when official swimming spots are usually unmonitored. The finding, according to Greenpeace, comes from “an unpublished Environment Agency study completed earlier this year”.

Greenpeace said the Environment Agency ran a trial last winter at six West Country beaches – all currently rated “good” or “excellent” – to test the sampling over the colder months. The current ratings are based on monitoring between mid-May and late September. Writing in its magazine, Unearthed, Greenpeace said the findings will “cause concern among the UK’s many fans of cold-water swimming, which has surged in popularity in recent years because of its reported health benefits.”

The agency, according to Greenpeace, found that between October and March there were much higher levels of faecal bacteria, E coli and Intestinal Enterococci at half of the beaches in the trial. These are bacteria can cause serious gastrointestinal illness.

At two beaches – one in Cornwall, and another in South Devon – Greenpeace said the agency data showed the water quality dropped from “excellent” to “sufficient” during the winter months; at a third beach, also in Devon, it fell from “excellent” to “poor”, which is below the minimum acceptable standard. Meanwhile, at two other beaches, the water quality remained “excellent” throughout the winter months, while at another, in Dorset, it improved from “good” to “excellent”.

It said the report’s findings indicated that the rise in bacteria levels at some beaches could be linked to heavy rainfall that can increase runoff from farmland and trigger sewage releases from overflow pipes. 

Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, Dr Doug Parr, said: “Wild swimming and its health benefits must not become unavailable due to the UK’s terrible water pollution. We need the Environment Agency to implement year-round testing for bacteria levels and other pollutants from farmland and our negligent water companies. That would allow wild swimmers to avoid these risks. And it would give us data which we can use to help protect the wildlife.”