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Bathing Water quality is on a strong upward trend in Eastbourne – now rated Good – thanks to investigations by Southern Water and the EA.
Eastbourne which had previously had a Good rating based on EA samples started to decline in 2017 and in 2021 dropped to ‘Sufficient’.
Urgent investigations were started, The EA found a cracked sewer under the pier and a private sewer discharging into the sea.
And Southern Water mobilised its illegal connections team.
Rob Butson, now Southern Water’s Bathing Water Lead was then leader of the six man illegal connections team.
“Careless builders can sometimes plumb wastewater into surface water drains. Instead of sewage going to be treated, it enters the nearest water course,” he said.
In Eastbourne in 2023, the team hit the jackpot. “We found a café with multiple toilets connected to an outfall right on the beach. The owners were very quick to jump on the problem and samples tested by the Environment Agency improved overnight” said Rob.
“A single toilet can discharge 20,000 litres of pure sewage a year. That’s a really serious impact.”
Since then the misconnections team has doubled to 12 and is working across our region to improve water quality.
The teams start by testing quality at outfalls and work back up hill. They lift manholes to look for detergent scent, use cages to catch toilet paper and use a mobile testing lab to find ammonia or e coli.
In East Sussex alone 145 misconnections have been found.
