Protesters gathered today (June 20) to march from the Thanet council offices in Margate to the Southern Water pumping station at Foreness to show their anger over the latest discharge of wastewater into Thanet’s beaches.
Eleven of the isle’s beaches and bays have been affected by the discharge and advice against swimming in the water at these sites remains.
The wastewater was released via the emergency outfall into Palm Bay and Margate Sands. during the storm on Wednesday night/Thursday morning.
Southern Water says this was due to a lightning strike at the wastewater pumping station which caused a power outage and also disabled the telemetry systems, causing the discharge via the outfall. Power was restored to the site via power from the emergency generator but not in time to help the telemetry to control the site as intended.
Among those at today’s protest – organised by the ACORN Margate group – was Margate Central ward councillor Rob Yates who said Southern Water’s chief executive should have come to Margate to provide an update on the situation.
Cllr Yates said: He needs to provide an update on the clean up, an update on their technical fix, and a clear compensation link for businesses who have lost trade due to their mistake.
“There needs to be accountability for these situations and the decent thing for the chief executive of Southern Water to do is to come to Margate and explain himself in person.”
Volunteers from the Friends of Botany Bay and Kingsgate also joined the march at Palm Bay. Member Barry Manners said: “The tide is now coming in. Southern Water has had all afternoon to clean and litter pick Botany Bay. Yet a 10 minute cursory inspection reveals sanitary towels and other sewage waste below the high tide mark – only to be washed out to sea tonight.”
Members of the group spent more than 100 hours over the six weeks following a similar sewage incident last year, picking up thousands of wet wipes, tampons and other waste.
Thanet Green Party and Surfers Against Sewage members were also in today’s crowd of around 100 people.
Protestors want compensation for local businesses affected by reduced tourist traffic, for customers and a commitment for improved infrastructure at the pumping station.
This morning Southern Water issued a statement to say a compensation scheme is open and investigation into the wastewater release continues.
Dr Nick Mills, Head of Pollution and Flooding Resilience at Southern Water, said: “No pollution is acceptable to us or our customers and we apologise for the impact the latest incident has had on local residents, businesses and the environment.
“We are dedicated to protecting the environment and reducing pollution incidents is a top priority for us.
“We have invested £3.2billion across our region in the last six years to improve the capacity and efficiency of the wastewater network and will continue to do, with a further £1.7billion committed for the next four years.
“As part of the Government’s CSO Task Force we are committed to tackling this national and complex issue and we are leading the way with the publication of our comprehensive Pollution Incident Reduction Plan last year.
“Wastewater releases at times of heavy rainfall happen across the UK to protect properties from flooding. The release that happened overnight on 16 June was caused by a combination of heavy rainfall and lightning strike during the storms which caused a short power failure and affected systems on site at our Margate Water Pumping Station.
“ Back-up generators are in place. As part of our preparations for the predicted thunderstorms and heavy rainfall we also had a team standing by in the area. These additional precautionary measures meant we were able to immediately begin work restoring the site to full operation.
“Unfortunately, we had to make this emergency release to protect local homes and businesses from internal flooding.
“Our investigations into this incident are ongoing and we continue to work closely with the Environment Agency and Thanet District Council. We continue to monitor the coastline and clean-up after each high tide.
“A compensation scheme for businesses is available and business owners affected by this incident can make a claim.”
Southern Water says it is already liaising with affected businesses and says anyone who has not had contact can call the usual customer line and staff will help them start the claim process.
In liaison with the Environment Agency, advice against bathing is in place at the following bays:
Minnis Bay
West Bay
St Mildreds Bay
Westbrook
Margate Main Sands
Walpole Bay
Palm Bay
Foreness
Botany Bay
Kingsgate Bay
Joss Bay
Signs have been placed on these bays to inform beach users.
