TTS face prosecution over beach pollution

Friday 20th January 2012, 3:00PM GMT.

The outfall in St Aubin’s Bay from where the pollutants are discharged

TRANSPORT and Technical Services could be prosecuted for repeatedly failing to stop harmful pollutants being pumped into St Aubin’s Bay from the sewage treatment works.

Despite the department spending an estimated £8 million on trying to remove nitrates from the water released into the sea since the late 1990s, levels still exceed the legal limit.

Environmental protection officers have now submitted a file of evidence about breaches of the plant’s discharge permit to the Attorney General, who is considering whether to bring the matter to court.

Their concern centres on the fertilising action of the nitrates, which causes the growth of plants like sea lettuce that can create a nuisance and harm other marine life.

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1
Save Our Shoreline

January 20, 2012 at 4:38 pm

Your article leaves out the bacterial element of the outfall. It’s not only nitrates that are regularly discharged into St. Aubin’s Bay through this outfall. Sewage contamination is a regular occurence and affects Jersey’s Aquaculture industry.
A considered analysis on what goes in to the sea and the effects it has on our beaches can be found on our website here: http://www.jerseyinperil.com/march11.html

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- Aukward
  
  January 20, 2012 at 7:22 pm
  
  Save Our Shoreline,
  
  Bacterial!! have you seen this ?
  Published three days ago http://www.efsa.europa.eu/fr/efsajournal/pub/2500.htm link that to the Scrutiny Report if you dare!!
  
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2
Mario

January 20, 2012 at 4:55 pm

You only have to look out to sea a 100 metres or so, near First Tower, at high tide to see all the seagulls swimming in the water. I doubt they are there for the nitrates.

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- smelly fish guts
  
  January 20, 2012 at 7:19 pm
  
  Their there because they eat fish, and incase you hadnt noticed they are not too fussy either seeing as they will pop onto land to eat out rotting food out of bins.
  
  Maybe they wouldnt eat out of bins if the fish were more abundant. The sea is basically where they live so are bound to sit in it but why do they come to shore to eat? Maybe its because food from bins is better than eating from poluted sea water or maybe because the sea is so poluted and overfished they have no option.
  
  Just as an aside I caught a bass a couple of years ago at first tower, freshly caught and when i gutted it it was all black and grey and stunk, not like a fish guts should, normally you dont notice much smell. I have never fished out there since. When you catch them in other areas there is no such stink so I believe it IS due to the crud that is being pumped out
  
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  - joker
    
    January 25, 2012 at 4:49 pm
    
    Or maybe becasue people don’t dispose of their rubbish properly and leave bin bags all over town.
    
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3
Perspicuous

January 20, 2012 at 5:21 pm

The population creates the mess, TTS pump it out to sea, Environmental Protection officers test it, the TTS Minister gets fined and then pays the Treasury Minister. The Treasury Minister then pays the TTS Minister to put it right. It costs money to take it through court so whatever happens the taxpayer will loose.

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- nigel
  
  January 20, 2012 at 6:14 pm
  
  but the lawyers will win.
  
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- smelly fish guts
  
  January 20, 2012 at 7:23 pm
  
  lose, you mean
  
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  - nigel
    
    January 21, 2012 at 2:52 pm
    
    lawyers always win, even when they lose.
    
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4
Someone

January 20, 2012 at 5:56 pm

Maybe they should stop mucking about wasting £5000 here and there to change speed signs and use the money to better affect here.

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5
Castlecaretaker

January 20, 2012 at 6:42 pm

The fact is that TTS won’t be fined as it will be deemed ‘not to be in the public interest’. But until that verdict, the files will be examined and pored over and months will go by at the public’s expense paying for the Law Officers to reach that conclusion.

A similar situation happened in the Spring Summer of 2009 at the Incinerator where polluted water from the bunker pit was being pumped out by the contractors against the instructions of the Consultants who were overseeing the operation. The Regulator wrote to the Contractor and the Supervisor warning them that they were breaking the law and sent a file to the A.G.

The Law Officers sat on it for nearly 2 years to the exasperation of the Environmental Scrutiny Panel who were trying to get to the root of the problem but were being stonewalled by the various Departments on the grounds that ‘there was a criminal investigation in progress’. Of course it wasn’t taken futher and the official line was that the project was a roaring success and won 2 safety awards. So I wouldnt expect that TTS will get more than a letter advising them to try and do better!

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6
Aukward

January 20, 2012 at 7:17 pm

This can’t possibly be true!
We have heard time and time again that our waters are pristine and any criticism is wrong.
Perhaps the Emperors’ new clothes will cover this all up.
Or perhaps ask exactly why the Cavern, designed to discharge in extremis once every few years has discharged raw sewage 7-10 times last year.

Some of us know what the reality is and the nitrate issue is just the start!!

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7
Claude

January 20, 2012 at 10:20 pm

Great thing to publish.
Anybody thinking of holidaying in jersey this summer will be pleased to know this is on one of our largest beach.
You can holiday somewhere else and would save money and not have a health risk

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8
the thin wallet

January 21, 2012 at 10:14 am

the sea lettuce was there in the 70′s long before we had a treatment plant such as today.
as schoolkids we all swam in it, and threw it around .
we are still healthy and alive.
even when the new equipment at bellozane was up and running( its quite old now)
the seagulls were still we at the end of the outfall. and i have heared of loo paper floating about down that way.
i belive our use of nitrates , is much less than years before , not as many small ships bringing the stuff here in the first place .
unless the nitrates that do turn up are double strength, so less shipping more nitrates .
anyone know how much bottled water the people of jersey drink?

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9
Lara

January 22, 2012 at 12:35 am

I suppose this will be another file to the attorney general which will sit there for a year, then a decision that there is no evidence to prosecute.

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10
Overpopulated

January 22, 2012 at 8:23 am

Well if you allow the human population to increase you get an increase in sewage, doesn’t take a brain surgeon to work out.

So our ‘beneficial’ increase in population is the answer and I would imagine the sewage system has not been improved to cope.

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11
Sanity

January 22, 2012 at 3:14 pm

Guernsey pump all their sewerage untreated into the sea just 20 miles away. How much more tax should we all have to pay to ensure all our waste is 100% squeekie clean?

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12
Jen

January 22, 2012 at 5:58 pm

When I was a kid we lived at First Tower and every summer was spent on the beach.

One more than one occasion I remember the ”floaters” on the water surface in that area – the final straw was when my younger brother got out of the water absolutely stinking as though he’d had an ”accident”.

My parents banned us from ever going in the water down there again.

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13
S G

January 23, 2012 at 9:24 am

What about the 100s of tons of seaweed they take down the beach at Grouville and bury it. The smell is there for weeks and kills all the cockles and everything else in the area.

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