Record number of bathing waters meet European standards
08/11/2006
England's best ever bathing water quality results were announced today (9 November), bringing good news for beach users and the tourism industry.
A record 99.5% of all bathing waters in England met the standards required by European law in 2006, compared to 98.8% in 2005. Only 2 of England's 413 monitored bathing waters failed to reach the minimum 'mandatory' standard.
Environment Minister Ian Pearson said:
"This year's results represent the highest compliance with European bathing water standards since monitoring began. We should be very proud of the consistently high standard of water quality being achieved each year at our bathing waters. The money that has been invested by water companies and others since the 1990s to improve water quality is now showing real results, bringing benefits to the environment, public health and tourism."
75.1% of all English bathing waters also reached much tighter 'guideline' water quality standards, higher than last year's figure of 73.7%.
Mr Pearson continued:
"Work is continuing to improve water quality still further, by upgrading sewerage infrastructure and tackling diffuse water
pollution from farming and urban sources. This still affects the quality of bathing water at some of our beaches, and we will be working closely with farmers and others to reduce this type of pollution."
In April this year, the two-year England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative was launched, which aims to work with farmers to improve farming practices and reduce pollution from agriculture in 40 priority catchments.
Such measures will help to reach even tighter water quality standards in the future, which were agreed in Europe earlier this year following a revision of current bathing water legislation.
Higher standards will apply from 2015 and more information about bathing waters will be provided to the public at beaches and online.
Notes to editors
1. Further information about the EC Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC) and bathing water quality in England can be found on the Defra website at: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/water/quality/bathing/default.htm
2. The main water quality results for identified coastal and inland bathing waters in England, and a summary of the UK compliance figures, can be found in the 2006 results tables. A report with more detailed results for the UK will be available on the bathing water web page by the end of December 2006 (web address as above).
3. Standards required by the Bathing Water Directive:
* Bathing water quality results in the UK are assessed on the basis of compliance with standards in the Bathing Water Directive. The two main standards used to assess the quality of bathing water are total coliforms and faecal coliforms, which are bacteria found in the guts of humans and other warm-blooded animals, and are indicators of contamination from sewage and other sources.
* The Directive sets minimum 'mandatory' values to be achieved by 95 per cent of samples (normally 19 out of 20 samples) taken during the bathing season. The number of samples failing to meet the Directive's standards for total and faecal coliform bacteria is shown for each failed bathing water in the 2006 results table.
* The tighter guideline water quality standards are based on compliance with three microbiological standards specified in the Bathing Water Directive (which sets maximum permitted levels of total and faecal coliforms and faecal streptococci). These standards are one of the requirements for a beach to achieve 'Blue Flag' status, and are described as guideline (indicated by 'G') in the 2006 results table.
* The European Commission will publish the 2006 results for other EU Member States in May / June 2007 on their website.
4. 2006 bathing water information for England:
* The 2 bathing waters that failed to meet the minimum mandatory standards are Staithes in the North East and Hampstead Heath Ladies Pond in the Thames region.
* No new bathing waters have been identified in 2006.
* Two bathing waters could not be sampled in 2006. Blackpool Central in the North West region was not accessible due to engineering works and the single point of access to Newhaven beach in the Southern region was closed for safety reasons.
* The bathing season runs from 15 May to 30 September, although water quality sampling begins two weeks before the start of the season.
5. Bathing water results for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are published by the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Department of the Environment Northern Ireland, respectively. The results are also available on the internet sites of the Environment Agency (for England and Wales), Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Environment and Heritage Service (for Northern Ireland). Any questions relating to bathing water compliance should be directed to the relevant organisation.
6. In March 2006 a revised Bathing Water Directive was adopted (2006/7/EC). As well as stricter water quality standards, it contains a requirement to provide more detailed information about bathing waters to the public. Further information can be found at: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/water/quality/bathing/revision.htm
7. The England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative (ECSFDI) was announced by Ministers on 19 December 2005. Further information on the elements of the ECSFDI can be found online at www.defra.gov.uk/farm/environment/water/csf, and in the following press releases: www.defra.gov.uk/news/2005/051219a.htm and
www.defra.gov.uk/news/2006/061031a.htm.
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