from Sunday Herald, 24 June 2001
When Senja Bownes went surfing at Pease Bay on the beautiful coast of east Lothian four years ago, she didn't expect to die. But she nearly did -- from an E.coli infection she got from sewage in the water. Feverish, drenched in sweat, and repeatedly sick, the 33-year-old teacher spent two weeks at the City Hospital in Edinburgh on an anti biotic drip. 'I've never been so ill', she said. 'I thought I was just going to fade away.'
The tragedy of her suffering is that it is far from unique. The bugs, bacteria and viruses contained in the raw sewage that is still pumped into seas around Scotland not only make us ill, in extreme cases they can kill. Analysis of the first 500 samples from Scotland's beaches, unveiled today by the Sunday Herald, shows that more than 20 bathing waters are already failing to meet the European sewage safety guidelines this summer. Mostly concentrated on the Ayrshire coast, they include two beaches which have already failed to meet the much higher mandatory safety limit: Gailes, in Irvine, and Turnberry.
There is evidence of dirty water also at Dores on Loch Ness, Portobello West in Edinburgh, Kingsbarns in Fife and Nairn East. In contrast, relatively clean water has been detected at many east coast resorts, including two beaches near Elie in Fife, several in east Lothian (including Pease Bay) and Montrose, north of Dundee (see tables below).
In association with the environmental group Friends of the Earth Scotland, the Sunday Herald today launches a summer-long campaign to Save Our Beaches. Every fortnight until the autumn we will monitor and publish the state of Scotland's bathing waters.
In order to help you decide which beaches to visit, we will not hesitate to name and shame the worst offenders, nor to give credit to those who have cleaned up their act. And we will turn the spotlight on the flawed and sometimes bizarre system that excludes many of the nation's most popular beaches from scrutiny.
Last year nine of Scotland's 60 bathing beaches designated by the government ended the season failing the mandatory safety limit set by the European Commission for concentration of sewage effluent in the water. Water that contains more than 2000 faecal coli forms, or more than 10,000 total coliforms per 100ml, can fail. Worse, 36 of the 60 beaches last year failed to meet the much stricter European safety guidelines which aim to bring faecal coliforms below 100 per 100 millilitres of water and total coliforms below 500. Only two dozen beaches met the guideline standard, putting Scotland at the bottom on the European clean bathing water league.
Dr Richard Dixon, head of research at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: 'It seems incredible, at the start of the 21st century, that we even need to think about water quality before going for a paddle or a swim at a Scottish beach. Surely we should be able to go to any beach and know that we can go home with no risk of a tummy bug, an ear infection, or worse.'
Samples for the first three weeks of June have shown recurrence of the problems along the Clyde coast. 'If Nessie exists, he or she is swimming in some not very nice water,' Dixon added. 'At the other end of the scale, we have 35 beaches with a perfect record so far.
'Over the coming weeks we'll be watching for the big movers, the first beach to fail for the season and the emerging contenders for Scotland's best beach.' He also pointed out that there were many beaches, including Broughty Ferry, near Dundee, and Largs, which were not on the government's list and hence deprived of regular, published, monitoring results.
FoE is calling on the Executive, which has acknowledged that Scotland is not limited to 60 beaches, to launch a review of the number of designated bathing waters. 'And while they are at it, perhaps they could reinstate their dropped commitment to giving us clean waters by 2005,' urged Dixon.
So far this year, 561 individual water samples have been taken by the government's green watchdog, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa). They are grouped into 187 sets of three, of which two failed the mandatory limit, 39 breached the guidelines, and 146 were within the guidelines. For a beach to fail the limit for the season, it must fail twice.
Although Sepa stresses that it is too early in the season to make a conclusive assessment, it takes comfort from the initial findings. 'The results taken to date have been broadly encouraging, particularly at bathing waters on the north and east coasts of Scotland', said Campbell Gemmell, the agency's director of strategic planning. 'Improvements to sewage treatment works at locations such as Ayr, Girvan and Edinburgh Seafield have come on-stream and have been designed and constructed to ensure high water quality at nearby bathing sites."
The water authorities make similarly soothing noises, particularly West of Scotland Water, whose area includes the dirtiest beaches. It is investing more than £250m in sewage treatment, including works at Ayr, Inverclyde, Stevenson, Dumbarton, Irvine and Girvan.
'Most of these schemes will become operational between this summer and the next five years. Up to now £63 million has been spent on completing the Ayr and Girvan schemes', said a spokeswoman for West of Scotland Water. She also pointed out that, as some of the pollution came from animal wastes washed off the land, new sewage treatment plants were not the only answer. Studies show that some of the worst of such 'diffuse pollution' occurred after rainfall.
'The authority is surprised and disappointed to see the initial failure of the samples taken by Sepa,' the spokes woman added. 'Scotland will have better beaches when investment in sewage infrastructure is complete.
Intentions, however, will not be enough to satisfy those who regularly use Scotland's bathing waters. Alasdair Steele, the Scottish spokesman for Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), suffered upset stomachs and headaches when he used to windsurf off Newburgh, near Aberdeen.
He is convinced that the mandatory safety limit for sewage is inadequate because it doesn't prevent life-threatening diseases from being spread by E.coli, hepatitis, or other path ogens. Over 70% of the 600 cases of illness logged on the SAS data base over the past eight years were from beaches that met the mandatory limits.
'We don't feel that the man datory standard provides an assurance to water users that they won't catch a viral or bacterial infection,' Steele said.
'If you took a bathful of water and then poured in a cup of raw sewage, it would still meet the mandatory standard. It is not pristine water.' He wants all beaches to meet the safety guidelines.
'Occasionally you will dip under a wave and come up with a condom on your head. That is a fairly good indication that there is a problem,' Steele pointed out.
FULL LIST OF BEACHES
(marks out of ten for clean water so far this year)
Irvine-Gailes / 3.8
Ettrick Bay, Isle of Bute / 5
Loch Ness (Dores) / 5
Girvan / 5
Turnberry / 6
Ayr (South Beach) / 6.2
Portobello West (Kings Rd) / 6.7
Luss Bay / 6.7
Kingsbarns / 6.7
Eyemouth / 6.7
Southerness / 6.7
Nairn (East Beach) / 7.5
Dunnet Bay / 7.5
Prestwick / 7.5
Cruden Bay / 7.5
Ganavan Bay / 8.3
Sandyhills / 8.3
Brighouse Bay / 8.3
Saltcoats/Ardrossan / 8.3
Kinghorn (Pettycur) / 8.3
Cullen / 8.8
Aberdeen / 8.8
Troon (South Beach) / 8.8
Millport, Cumbrae / 9
Carnoustie / 10
Crail (Roome Bay) / 10
North Berwick (Milsey Bay) / 10
Machrihanish Bay / 10
Fraserburgh / 10
North Berwick (West Bay) / 10
St Andrews (West Sands) / 10
Dunbar East / 10
Rockcliffe / 10
Yellowcraigs / 10
Dunbar (Belhaven) / 10
Stonehaven / 10
Inverboyndie / 10
Peterhead (Lido) / 10
Portobello Central (James St) / 10
Aberdour (Silversands) / 10
Morar beach / 10
Nairn (Central Beach) / 10
Gullane / 10
Seton Sands/Longniddry / 10
St Abbs / 10
Dornoch / 10
Rosehearty / 10
Arbroath (West Links) / 10
Burntisland / 10
Balmedie / 10
Coldingham / 10
Montrose / 10
Pease Bay / 10
Whitesands / 10
Thorntonloch / 10
St Andrews (East Sands) / 10
Elie (Woodhaven & Ruby Bay) / 10
Fraserburgh (Philorth) / 10
Shell Bay / 10
Carrick Bay / no score
Source: Friends of the Earth Scotland
