As Paul Arnott says the figures from the Environment Agency make for some shocking reading – showing just how widespread a crisis South West Water’s failure to get on top of sewage overflows really is.

Coming in at nearly 10,000 hours – half the total duration of all the 20116 hours of sewage spills in East Devon by South West Water throughout 2022 and 20% of the 2023 total – Tale Vale ward, encompassing villages like Talaton, Payhembury, and Dulford, suffered the most overflows in the East Devon in 2023. 

This is a stark illustration that sewage ‘poollution’ is not just a problem for our coastal towns like Exmouth: it affects all of us.

Remember, the inland “spills” all end up in local water courses and tributaries eventually polluting one or other of our four rivers the: Exe, Otter, Sid or Axe. These then pooliute our swimming water, beaches and the sea.

The table below shows the spill duration data as published by the Environment Agency for the “Top Ten” pooluted East Devon wards in 2023, compared to 2022. These top ten account for 80% of the total 2023 spills in East Devon.

(Caution: not all combined sewage overflows have been monitored during this period – there are some suspicious zeros in 2022. And emergency overflows have not been monitored at all.)

East Devon top ten wards for recorded sewage spills in 2023

Ward	2023 Hours	Change vs 2022
Tale Valley	9472	+5465
Woodbury & Lympstone	5313	+2770
Sidmouth Rural	4827	+4827
Clyst Valley	4089	+3286
Coly Valley	3338	+1568
Newbridges	2879	+1640
Honiton St Paul’s	2856	+209
Exe Valley	2408	+1684
Exmouth Littleham	2083	+1194
Trinity	1892	+1378

A marine biologist has revealed raw sewage being dumped in the English Channel has left every marine species in the water “full of cocaine, amphetamines and MDMA”.

Barney Davis www.independent.co.uk 

Traces of the drug routinely make their way into Britain’s waters after passing through users’ bodies, and could be altering the natural behaviour of some fish including whether they fight or take flight from danger.

Professor Alex Ford, working alongside Dr Tom Miller of Brunel University, has been investigating the impact of one huge sewage pipe in Hampshire’s Langstone Harbour which carries the waste of some 400,000 Portsmouth residents.

He told The Independent: “I was shocked when I saw the readings to be honest.

“These are unpublished results but so far we have tested crabs, shrimp, oysters, limpets, worms and seaweed.

“We thought [cocaine] would make shrimp swim quicker but it’s hard to compare to other creatures.

“We don’t know the full effect of it entering the water cycle, unfortunately. Many of these organisms will be exposed to a wide spectrum of different prescribed and illegal drugs.”

He insisted the drugs are in such small traces that they wouldn’t be able to kill an aquatic creature by overdose but the drugs, especially cocaine, amphetamines and MDMA, could alter their behaviour.

He added: “We don’t really know the full effects of cocaine on behaviour change but studies using other behavioural altering drugs such as antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds can cause changes in a wide variety of behaviours including swimming activity, reproductive behaviours and predatory escape responses.

He added: “Some industrial chemicals like the forever chemicals in our frying pans and waterproof stain-proof clothing are bioaccumulating up the food chain.

“One Australian study predicted duck-billed platypus were getting 60 per cent human equivalent dose of antidepressants through eating stream invertebrates.”

“In the marine life, we are finding they are full of drugs – contraceptive pills, antidepressants – every single marine species that we’ve looked at so far is full of cocaine.

“If you give a fish contraceptive pill it starts to feminise, if you give crabs antidepressants it changes their behaviour because those drugs were designed to change behaviour.

“If you give them illegal drugs as well, it has very much the same effect it has on them as it would do on people.”

The professor called for a full public inquiry into the actions of water companies as raw sewage discharges into rivers and coastal waters more than doubled to record levels in England last year, new figures show.

Environment agency data published on Wednesday showed there were 3.6 million hours of spills in 2023, compared with 1.8 million in the previous 12 months.

Water companies discharge waste into rivers and seas when sewers are overwhelmed by rainwater, with outlets known as storm overflows acting as relief valves when rain is particularly heavy.

In a 2018 study, biologists at the University of Naples Federico II put European eels in water containing a small dose of cocaine – similar to the amount found in rivers – for 50 days.

They found the fish “appeared hyperactive” compared to eels which had not been kept in waters containing cocaine.

The drug accumulated on the brain, muscles, gills, skin and other tissues of the cocaine-exposed eels, researchers said.

The eels’ skeletal muscle showed evidence of serious injury, including muscle breakdown and swelling, which had not healed 10 days after they were removed from the drug-contaminated water.

Owl has also received images of damage to beach huts in Budleigh (see below). 

Owl’s Budleigh correspondent points out that huts were badly damaged in the Spring ten years ago and observes that, in recent years, some owners appear to be putting their huts up early and taking them down late. Gales are quite likely from mid October to end of March and this creates a potential H&S flying debris issue. This is likely to get worse with global warming.

Anita Merritt www.devonlive.com

Beach hut owners have been condemned for putting themselves at risk amid a raging storm in an attempt to salvage their beach huts. Coastguards were called to Seaton beach last night, March 28, following reports that people were on the beach as waves battered the huts.

Dramatic photographs of the scene today, shared on social media by Beer Coastguard Rescue Team, show the extent of the damage caused to some of the beach huts. One appears to have been completely flattened while another is shown upturned.

Others have been shunted off their bases with the doors broken following yesterday’s onslaught of high winds and heavy rain.

Beer Coastguard Rescue Team posted on its Facebook page: “Seaton beach this morning after last night’s high tide and storm. Beer and Lyme coastguards were tasked to attend last night as some people were putting themselves at risk of injury by trying to get to their beach huts as seas were breaking over them.”

Damage caused by the storm to beach huts in Seaton (Image: Beer Coastguard Rescue Team)

Yesterday, March 28, the Met Office extended its yellow weather warning for the region until midnight. It warned of gale-force winds expected for much of the south. Today’s weather is a much calmer picture with a mixture of sunny spells and scattered showers predicted in the south west.

Damage caused by the storm to beach huts in Seaton (Image: Beer Coastguard Rescue Team)

Beach huts at Budleigh 2024

Budleigh in 2014 (When EDDC contemplated all year leasing)

South West Water claims it has no legal responsibility to keep the rivers and sea in the counties clean and clear of sewage.

South West Water also says it is the responsibility of the Government and the EA to ensure clean water, not the water companies that manage the nation’s rivers and coastline.

Owl has consulted a local historian who points out that:

The medical recognition of the value to health of sea water is recorded in various medical treaties of the mid eighteenth century. The first reference to bathing in the sea in Devon was made by Bishop Pocock of Exeter in 1750 at Exmouth, which by 1759 boasted of its bathing machines.

Royal patronage by George III of the “cure” in Weymouth 1798 ensured the rise to prominence of the “Seaside Town” as an alternative to the “Health Spa”.

Typical contemporary medical advice, recorded in the “Royal Magazine Teignmouth” in 1762 reads: “For the sake of drinking that fashionable purging draught, seawater, and bathing…..numbers of people from all parts resort here in the summer season, and cripples frequently recover the use of their limbs, hysterical ladies their spirits and even lepers are cleansed.”

So the amenity of bathing in the sea to health is long established and fundamental to the existence and prosperity of Exmouth.

Public has no right to swim in sea, claims firm that dumped sewage at bathing spot

David Parsley inews.co.uk 

South West Water is claiming it has no legal obligation to keep rivers and seawater clean of sewage in its defence against a Devon swimmer who is taking the water company to court.

Jo Bateman, who attempts to swim every day off the coast of Exmouth, is taking legal action against South West Water, claiming its frequent sewage discharges into the sea have taken away her legal right to a public “amenity”.

However, in its defence to Ms Bateman’s claim, seen by i, the water firm states no one has a legal right to swim in the sea.

Despite owning the sewage network in Devon and Cornwall, South West Water also claimed it has no legal responsibility to keep the rivers and sea in the counties clean and clear of sewage. Water companies are, however, subject to regulation enforced by the Government and Environment Agency (EA).

The company said Ms Bateman’s claim has “no basis in law” and requested that the case be struck out and, instead, go to mediation.

Ms Bateman told i: “There is no chance I will go to mediation just to hear their public relations guff about how well they’re doing to improve the sewage network. I want to see them in court and that’s what I will do.”

On Thursday, figures from the EA showed that South West Water was one of the UK’s biggest polluters, and was responsible for three of the 10 worst pollution spots across England in 2023.

This week, i revealed the EA was investigating all South West Water’s sewage overflows since December.

Water companies are only permitted to discharge sewage into rivers or the sea if adverse weather conditions cause storm overflows. To do so in moderate weather conditions can be considered illegal.

In its defence against Ms Bateman’s claim that she has lost an amenity she is entitled to, South West Water states: “The law does not recognise such rights, nor does the law impose a duty on South West Water.”

For wild swimming – outside the bathing season – there is no legal duty to achieve a certain water quality standard, the firm said.

Its added that even during the peak summer holiday season, South West Water and other firms have no duty to meet certain water quality standards.

The defence states: “Even during the bathing season, there is no absolute right to swim each day.”

South West Water said it is the responsibility of the Government and the EA to ensure clean water, not the water companies that manage the nation’s rivers and coastline.

Neither the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs nor the EA would comment on South West Water’s claims.

While rejecting Ms Bateman’s claims, South West Water acknowledged her “understandable concern about the environment”, adding “it is a concern shared by many of South West Water’s customers, and by South West Water itself”.

The firm has said it is investing record amounts to reduce the use of permitted storm overflows across the region, including £38m earmarked for Exmouth up to 2030.

Ms Bateman, who is claiming compensation of £379.50, has submitted an action to the Small Claims Court, alleging illegal sewage spills have affected both her physical and mental wellbeing.

She has detailed 54 instances when she believes the water company illegally dumped sewage into the sea during 2023. Ms Bateman is claiming the company’s pollution of the Exmouth coast has led to what is legally known as a loss of amenity, which means she must prove she has been injured.

Ms Bateman added: “Their defence is 16 pages of guff. They’ve said things like, I don’t have a legal right to swim in the sea, which, of course, is absolutely rubbish.

“It’s widely documented that you have a right to go in what are described as tidal and navigable waters, which obviously includes Exmouth’s beach and the River Exe.”

Many clean water campaigners dispute South West Water’s claims.

The Outdoor Swimming Society believes there is a right to swim in tidal and navigable waters. The coastline in Exmouth is both tidal and navigable.

It states “there is a public right of navigation” on all rivers and coastlines that can be navigated by any non-powered boat, and therefore “a right to swim”.

Kate Rew, co-founder of the society, added: “As human beings, we have the same right to clean water as we do to clean air.”

Daniel Start, the author of Wild Swimming, said: “Everyone is legally entitled to swim in the sea or tidal waters.”

Geoff Crawford, co-founder of End Sewage Convoys And Poollution Exmouth, criticised South West Water’s response to Ms Bateman’s claim.

“I believe that the company has both a legal and moral obligation to not pollute, to minimise pollution and use of emergency overflows to a minimum and to treat sewage as they are contractually obliged to do, not to discharge, overflow and dump it in our rivers, seas and wildlife sanctuaries.

“They seem to have and even speak with an utter contempt for anything other than maximum profit.”

However, a solicitor familiar with swimming rights suggests the law is not as clear as campaigners suggest.

Nathan Willmott, a partner at law firm Ashurst, said: “The statutory regime governing water companies has been held by the courts to cancel out certain common law rights that water users would otherwise have against water companies for allowing sewage discharge into the water and making it unsafe to swim in.”

But he suggested that if South West Water were to be found guilty of breaching the regulations on when sewage can been spilled into the sea, then its immunity from prosecution may not apply.

South West Water declined to comment on an ongoing legal case.

The water regulator Ofwat was contacted for comment.

The law on prosecuting water companies over sewage spills

The law around whether an individual can take legal action against sewage discharges appears to provide immunity to water companies if they are abiding by the Environment Agency (EA) regulations on spills.

David Green, a senior partner at law firm Edwin Coe, refers to a 2022 Court of Appeal decision in The Manchester Ship Canal Company v United Utilities Water case.

In 2022, a Court of Appeal decision found claims against water companies, that may have existed under common law, were superceded by the Water Industry Act 1991. It meant that if sewage discharges were due to an inadequate infrastructure, then the companies were not legally liable.

The ruling agreed that United Utilities’ regular discharges of untreated sewage into Manchester Ship Canal would, in common law, give rise to a legitimate damages claims. It was also undisputed that discharging untreated sewage was a breach of the EA regulations. 

Mr Greene agrees with South West Water’s claim that “the regulatory regime is enforceable ultimately by government”. 

However, Mr Greene added that the Court of Appeal’s judgement left open the possibility that common law claims could be valid for discharges caused not by “policy” or “capital expenditure” decisions but rather “operational” or “current expenditure” issues.  

“Whatever the conceptual tenability of this distinction, obtaining evidence pointing to an ‘operational’ decision leading to discharge is likely to be challenging,” added Mr Greene.

Nathan Willmott, a partner at law firm Ashurst, shared Mr Greene’s assessment.

He added: “While certain common law claims may persist – for example where the reason for the sewage release is ‘operational’ rather than infrastructure based – there is little incentive on the part of the water companies to prevent those releases of untreated sewage into rivers as there is little or no risk of civil claims being pursued against them.”