SAS supported the Environment Agency’s proposed conditions, which didn’t require excessive investment. Yet incredible, after 20 years of leniency, rather than embrace the decision with good grace the water companies involved appealed against 94% of the discharge consents! The appeal was brought before the Planning Inspector by; Anglian Water, Yorkshire Water, Welsh Water/Dwr Cymru, Thames Water and Severn Trent Water.

This missed opportunity and weak decision from the Planning Inspector must be a real blow to the Environment Agency staff that invested a huge amount of time and effort in bring this case before the inspectorate. We hope this will not deter the Environment Agency from commissioning other similarly vital steps to help protect and improve the environment.

On the opening day of the appeal, the 19th of January 2010, SAS greeted the water companies’ executives as they entered the appeal hearing to present their case with a huge image of what these CSOs actually look like, emblazoned simply with the word “Appealing?”

SAS are furious that these companies have been allowed to continue to pollute without fear of prosecution. They’ve had twenty years notice that these CSOs will have to be regulated, yet rather than face the music, once again they’ve shown utter disregard for what’s best for the environment and recreational water users. Surfers are 3 times more at risk from hepatitis A than the average bather because of the immersion and ingestion associated with the sport.

SAS Executive Director, Hugo Tagholm says: “As a water user and on behalf of all SAS supporters I’m extremely disappointed. These profitable water companies have had plenty of notice about these improvements, but outrageously they mounted an appalling appeal which has helped prevent actions that could have improved our environment.”

2010 is a bit of a landmark for SAS – it’s our 20th anniversary, and we’re planning on celebrating this in all sorts of ways throughout the year. More importantly, we’re going to use this opportunity to raise the profile of our campaigns right around the country, and create even more momentum to protect our beaches, oceans, waterways and waves.

Last year saw the launch of what is probably the biggest change in SAS campaigns since our inception way back in 1990. The new Protect Our Waves campaign introduced a division dedicated to protecting and accessing the resource for which we all share a passion – waves.

This is a significant move, and one that reflects the increasing need for waves to be recognised as an important recreational resource, something enjoyed by a growing of people every year.

Safeguarding the health of recreational water users was very much the central foundation of SAS, and for many years it has worked to protect the health of surfers, bodyboarders, windsurfers and all manner of enthusiasts who take to the UK’s waters in the name of sport and entertainment.

Subsequently, SAS has diversified, extending its campaigns to protect the environments we all enjoy as well as the individuals from a variety of threats, from shipping and marine litter to climate change and toxic chemicals.

Each of the phases has won significant victories along the way, helping make our experiences in the water more enjoyable, safer and more sustainable than ever before. But there’s still a massive amount of work to do to ensure the UK’s coastline is cleaned up and protected to the extent it deserves.

The Protect Our Waves campaign offers a new force representing waveriders rights. It is dealing with access issues, coastal development concerns and specific pollution threats posed to popular surfing spots. The launch at Kimmeridge Bay saw hundreds of surfers, windsurfers, kayakers, bodyboarders and other water users congregate to express their frustration over the limited access they currently have to Broad Bench, one of the UK’s finest south coast waves.

It’s thanks to our members and supporters that we can continue to roll out innovative, effective and exciting campaign initiatives protecting surfers and all other wave riders and water users around the UK. We’re always aiming to increase the opportunities for our members to get directly involved, whether by joining us on the campaign trail, helping out at beach cleans and awareness events, or supporting the campaign through exciting fundraising opportunities. So remember to renew your membership and get involved to ensure we can achieve the following and much more for our beautiful coastal environment and precious waves. We’re doing loads this year, including…

• Preventing water companies from turning off full UV treatment of sewage discharges in the winter months, just when the best waves hit our shores and you want to hit the sea!
• Pressing for greater regulation of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to protect surfers and all recreational water users from harmful pathogens such as Hepatitis A and E-coli 0157, which can be associated with these all-too-frequent discharges.
• Developing the Protect Our Waves campaign, calling for greater recognition and protection of the UK’s finite surf resources and associated beaches.
• Continuing our campaign against the growing problem of marine litter by pressuring industry and government to address the issue centrally.
• Increasing the number of SAS regional reps and local activities for you to get involved with.
• Nationwide beach clean and education tours – there are more coming to an area near you this year, so please do come along and get involved.

Finally, there have been growing calls for us to bring back the SAS Ball and, should we do so, as a member, you’ll be first to hear about it and get priority tickets. We’re keeping an eye on the Facebook fanpage, and if the number of fans is anything to go by, we’ll have no choice but to bring it back!

Yesterday Surfers Against Sewage’s (SAS) Scottish representative Alasdair Steele was joined on Pease Bay beach by local surfers and MSP John Lamont, to warn waveriders of the potential increased health risk at Pease Bay as Scottish Water reduce the levels of sewage treatment from September 15th.

4 weeks ago SAS unveiled a straw poll to the local waveriding community in Pease Bay. In just 4 weeks over 200 people have committed to using the sea at Pease outside the bathing season and joined the SAS call for full year round sewage treatment.

Scottish Water’s treatment works at Cove, near Pease Bay, is permitted to reduce levels of sewage treatment from full ‘tertiary’ treatment to ‘secondary’ treatment. Resulting in a huge increase in potentially harmfully pathogens entering the sea, a real health concern for local waveriders. Especially as Pease receives its best surf during this period. With new wetsuit technology, even on the coldest winter day surfers can enjoy the surf for hours on end.

The waveriders who have committed to using Pease Bay outside the bathing season estimate they will use the sea a combined total of total of 4,206 times from the 15th of September 2009 until the 15th of May 2010. Because of the nature of these water sports, surfers and waveriders are 3 times more likely to contract Hepatitis A, from sewage polluted waters than the average bather due to increased immersion and ingestion.

In 2008 SAS secured a victory on a similar campaign in England, when Northumbrian Water applied to reduce levels of sewage treatment outside the bathing season. Largely due to SAS’s hard fought campaign, the Environment Agency (EA) stipulated that sewage treatment could only be reduced outside the bathing season when the water company can prove an absence of water users and an absence of impacts on water quality. SAS believe this is a strong precedent and that Scottish water users deserve the same levels of protection.

SAS are calling on Scottish Ministers to recommend to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) that Scottish Waters keep their sewage treatment works at Cove at a tertiary level, whilst a robust survey of recreational water usage at Pease outside the bathing season is undertaken.

SAS’s Campaign Manger Andy Cummins says: “SAS are urging Scottish Ministers to ensure SEPA deliver the same levels of protection English and Welsh waveriders enjoy and ensure that Scottish Water’s discharge doesn’t impact on popular beaches.”

SAS’s Edinburgh Rep Alasdair Steele says: “Pease Bay has a huge community of surfers and receives great surf, especially outside the bathing season. This is when we need full sewage treatment to protect waveriders from potentially harmful bacteria and viruses.”

SAS have helped the Panorama team expose the shocking truth that after heavy rain, raw sewage is consistently discharging into our rivers, seas and bathing waters without warning to the public and water users.

SAS campaign manager Andy Cummins features heavily in the programme and captures the most outrageous footage of a Combined Sewage and Stormwater Overflow drain (CSO) discharging raw sewage into a river. This is the first time this disgusting practice has been highlighted, and was a scene that Andy Cummins captured repeatedly throughout summer 2009.

This summer especially, SAS has received a disturbing amount of medical complaints from water users all over the UK and this programme will help SAS ensure that water users are aware that after periods of heavy rain, water quality can be dramatically reduced.

The Panorama team commissioned their own tests – carried out by Plymouth Marine Laboratory – at bathing waters impacted by these CSOs and discovered traces of the potentially deadly strains of Ecoli 0157:H7 amongst other worrying pathogens. SAS are extremely concerned that these scandalous results were found at beaches that were achieving an excellent water quality result from the Environment Agency’s testing.

The Panorama team put these alarming findings to water companies and the Environment Agency and helped SAS exposes the shortcomings in our sewerage system. It makes for compelling viewing for everyone, but compulsive viewing for anyone who uses the UK’s rivers and seas.

Surfers Against Sewage Campaign Manager Andy Cummins says: “These disgusting discharges of raw sewage are a major health risk to water users and Panorama has done a great job in helping SAS get the message out that after periods of heavy rain water quality can be dramatically reduced. Now this information is out there, water users can make an informed decision before exposing themselves to potentially bacteria and viruses.”

This disgusting region of the ocean acts as a dustpan for plastic debris swept up by the Pacific Ocean currents.

The Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) left San Diego and travelled for six days to reach the densest regions of plastic accumulation, 1000 miles from land. There began 24-hour sampling, using tow nets to collect debris at a range of ocean depths.

Debris

Half-way through their trip the researchers discovered a large net entwined with plastic and marine animals. They also found plastic bottles containing a variety of biological inhabitants.

Most of the debris comprises tiny particles too small to see: plastic does not biodegrade into harmless particles; it’s broken down by sunlight into ever smaller pieces until it reaches a molecular level. Once it has disintegrated it enters the food chain of the local wildlife.

The scientists on this expedition were the first people to see the true scale of the nasty mess. “Finding so much plastic there was shocking,” said Miriam Goldstein, chief scientist, “How could there be this much plastic floating in a random patch of ocean — a thousand miles from land?”.

What can we do?

80% of the plastic pollution comes from the land. Some of it might come from big industrial polluters, but nevertheless it’s important we all do our bit. I’ve started to pick up a few pieces of litter after a surf session, and now I’m going to go one step further and start sending plastic I find on the beach back to the manufacturer using the Surfers Against Sewage ‘return to offender’ campaign, urging them to use less harmful packaging so products can biodegrade without putting wildlife at risk.