Untreated sewage was dumped into the waters around Hastings, Poole, and the Isle of Wight following the downpours across the UK, Surfers Against Sewage data show.
The most affected area was the Isle of Wight, with the largest number of discharges recorded in Colwell Bay (18), Totland Bay (17) and Cowes (12).
East Sussex saw the largest number of discharges in Pelham Beach (14), St Leonards (14) and Saltdean (10).
Water companies in England and Wales reported 228 sewage overflow incidents to Surfers Against Sewage in the past 24 hours, after the Met Office issued snow, ice and 80 flood warnings.
Of the 228 sewage incidents, 160 were from Southern Water.
All discharges in the Isle of Wight and East Sussex’s most affected areas were made by Southern Water.
The company also announced today that excess rainfall and a mechanical fault in its infrastructure resulted in an “unpermitted discharge,” which led to two hours of unscreened releases into the River Test in Hampshire.
Southern Water added that it has “been working through the night to install temporary measures to screen the flow, which are now in place”.
Heavy rainfall this week led to prolonged discharges into UK rivers, including a 60-hour discharge into the River Thames in central London and a 78-hour discharge into Mill Brook in South Moreton.
Sewage releases (shown in red) across the UK (photo: Surfers Against Sewage Seas & Rivers Service)
Surfers Against Sewage policy and advocacy manager, Henry Swithinbank, told i: “As ever, we’re not surprised at the sheer number of sewage pollution alerts,” claiming they stem from “devastating underinvestment” across the water industry.
Mr Swithinbank added that “the blatant disregard for public health and our blue spaces is appalling”.
A spokesperson for Thames Water told i that the company regards “all discharges as unacceptable and are sorry to those affected by this. The overflows are designed to operate automatically when the sewer network is about to be overwhelmed which then releases diluted wastewater into rivers, rather than letting it back up into people’s homes.”
The spokesperson said that “higher than average long-term rainfall across London and the Thames Valley” is causing the overflows, and the company considers “taking action to improve the health of rivers” as its “key focus”.
Northern Scotland has recorded the most rainfall so far this month, seeing 82.1mm on average, followed by south-west England and southern Wales (60.8 mm), according to the Met Office.
Over the past 24 hours, the Met Office recorded 15-25 mm of rain across England and Wales, with the highest rainfall being recorded at Fylingdales, North Yorkshire (34.2 mm).
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Water companies are permitted to discharge untreated sewage during periods of exceptional rainfall to prevent their infrastructure from being overwhelmed, but the large number of sewage discharges reported in the past 24 hours has raised concern.
Nick Mills, head of Southern Water’s clean rivers and seas task force, said: “We share our communities’ passion for the environment and we work very closely with the Environment Agency, who assess outfalls for environmental risk potential, and we ensure our storm water outfalls comply with strict permits and are located and managed appropriately.
“These storm water outfalls are used when the system is overloaded with surface and groundwater, so homes, schools, hospitals and communities are not flooded. Furthermore, such discharges are heavily diluted with rainwater.
“We are working extremely hard and investing heavily to reduce their use across our region and are already exceeding the Government’s own reduction targets – thanks to the rollout of innovative nature-based and engineering solutions designed at reducing and slowing the flow of rainfall entering our sewers.”
Commenting on the mechanical fault which caused the releases into the River Test, Southern Water added: “Our teams are on-site now to replace one of the two broken screens today [Friday]. The site can return to normal operation once one of the screens is operational which we expect to be later today.
“It will take a few more days to refurbish and replace the second screen and to empty the wastewater currently held in the storm tank by passing it through the treatment works.”
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