PRESS RELEASE : Environment Agency investigates bathing water quality at Bridlington South [August 2023]

The project – funded jointly by the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water and East Riding of Yorkshire Council – aims to identify and better understand the sources of pollution that are impacting water quality.

To date, the Environment Agency’s investigations have been able to identify some of the potential contributing sources of bacteria using microbial source tracking techniques.

This has shown that the bathing water can be impacted by humans, seabirds and dogs at different times. However, work to date has not been able to drill down into the level of detail required to fully understand causes of pollution. This project aims to help gather more of this data.

To help with this, the Environment Agency are undertaking a number of investigative sampling days in Bridlington over the summer taking samples every half an hour – from 8am to 6pm – on specific days throughout the bathing water season.

Samples are being taken at Bridlington South monitoring point, Bridlington Harbour and Bridlington North monitoring point and will be analysed initially for Ecoli and IE – the bacteria which are used to provide bathing water classification results.

After collection, samples are refrigerated and sent to the Environment Agency’s microbiology laboratory in Exeter. During the autumn, their microbiology team will carry out more detailed analysis to try to establish the origin of any bacteria found in the samples.

Claire Campbell, the Environment Agency’s technical bathing waters expert, said:

Whilst we will always strive for improvements, overall bathing water quality has improved significantly over the last decade – with a continuing upward trend – due to robust regulation and working with partners. In most places bathing water is now better than it has been for many years.

We are, however, keen to find out the detail of what is causing our poorer results, so that action can be taken by the relevant people to improve our bathing waters.

This project in Bridlington will help us identify the bacterial inputs and better understand the sources of pollution, so that collectively we can work together to improve water quality.

Environment Agency monitoring plays an important role in how we protect our valuable waterways and safeguard the health of bathers. During the bathing water season, the Environment Agency carry out a robust sampling programme as specified in the Bathing Water regulations. These are set in law and are the same as those carried out across the rest of Europe. Samples are taken weekly and this information is used to produce an annual classification based on four years’ of data.

Most of our bathing waters have consistently high quality when we measure and classify these against the standards of the Bathing Water Regulations. Across Yorkshire we have seen a rise in the number of Excellent bathing waters – up by four in the last year, with 89% of bathing waters rated as Good or Excellent – in line with last year’s results.

The Environment Agency continue to work collaboratively as part of the Yorkshire Bathing Water Partnership, to understand the root of water quality problems and ensure people can enjoy cleaner, healthier waters.

Information on all 424 designated bathing water sites and any forecasted drops in water quality will be published on the Swimfo: Find a Bathing Water website. This provides immediate access to information on every bathing water in England.