FOR the second year running, Devon’s beaches have broken records for water quality standards, despite some groups questioning the reliability of the findings.

The Environment Agency found that ‘most’ of the 148 beaches monitored ‘met the highest international standards for water quality cleanliness’.

This year, nine beaches in Devon and Cornwall have improved their bathing water classification, while four beaches have deteriorated. This includes Teignmouth Town Beach, which deteriorated in status from ‘excellent’ to ‘good’.

Every other beach designated as a bathing spot by the Environment Agency retained their status, all of which were classed as ‘excellent’, with the exception of Dawlish Town Beach, which remained classified as ‘good’.

Bruce Newport, Devon and Cornwall area environment manager said: ‘Our beaches are 100 per cent compliant, so now the challenge is to work collaboratively with everyone to keep our healthy waters in an excellent state for people to enjoy. Our coastline is an incredible natural feature.

‘We have had relatively few reports of pollution on our beaches this summer which is a credit to everyone maintaining and improving our bathing waters. We would like to say thank you to those groups, communities and businesses which have gone above and beyond to keep pollution out of our water ways.’

However, findings from charity Surfers Against Sewage dispute the reliability of these classifacations, arguing that many of the beaches deemed to be either ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ are actually failing to meet environmental quality standards required. They state that 88 of South West Water’s sewage overflows were not meeting Environmental Quality Standards as they failed to meet the target allocated sewage discharges per bathing season.

South West Water said: ‘After listening to and talking with customers, communities and campaigners right across our region, in April we announced WaterFit, our plans to protect rivers and seas together.

‘WaterFit will dramatically reduce our use of storm overflows, maintain our region’s excellent bathing water quality standards all year round and reduce and then remove our impact on river water quality by 2030.

‘Working with partners and customers WaterFit will begin to deliver the change we all want to see.’

The Environment Agency stated: ‘At Teignmouth we continue to work with Teignbridge Council to improve water quality at Teignmouth Town.  We are carrying out investigations into the cause of elevated bacteria numbers in samples taken at Teignmouth in August.’

Regarding the allegations made by Surfers Against Sewage, the Environment Agency stated: ‘Classifications give a long-term assessment of water quality over a 4-year period. The 2022 Bathing Water Classifications are based on data from 2018, 2019, 2021 2022 with a gap in 2020 due to the pandemic.

‘An annual classification gives an overall assessment of water quality, but daily fluctuations in water quality can occur. Where these are influenced by factors such as the weather or tide, the Environment Agency makes pollution risk forecasts (PRF) at sites where it is possible to do so – this includes Exmouth, Budleigh and Ladram. This lets bathers know when a temporary reduction in water quality is likely, so they can make informed decisions before deciding whether to bathe on a given day.

‘A change in classification doesn’t always mean there has been a significant change in water quality. There are defined limits for bacteria in each of the four classifications and there will always be bathing waters where the influences on water quality mean that they are close to classification boundaries. This means that they may fluctuate between classifications, even though the water quality is similar over the long term.’