Heacham bathing waters

Overview

Overview

Bathing water season

The Bathing Water Regulations 2013 set out the bathing water season, which runs from 15 May to 30 September inclusive each year. We are responsible for sampling for 2 types of bacteria at designated bathing waters during the season. The regulations require the sampling to start just before the season and include some weekend and bank holiday samples, when the largest number of bathers are often present.

What does a bathing water designation mean?

It means that the water has been designated by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as a bathing water– we will therefore test it during the bathing water season and give a classification. Designation does not mean that the site meets water quality standards or is safe to swim in. More information on the designation process can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bathing-waters-apply-todesignate-or-de-designate/designate-a-bathing-water-guidance-on-how-to-apply

Sampling programme  

The regulations dictate that we must set a program before the beginning of the season and follow it as much as possible.

We take each water sample at 30cm depth after wading into 1 metre of water then analyse within 4 hours, or within 24 hours if refrigerated (Environment Agency vans are refrigerated). The results are then available 2-5 days later, as the bacteria must be plated up and grown before being counted. There is a set protocol for the sampling, including sterile bottles and aseptic techniques. Heacham bathing water is sampled 20 times each season.

Heacham bathing water area

 

Bathing water quality information

The Swimfo site contains lots of useful information about bathing water quality – you can see all the data through the years with maps and details of investigations. If there is a known relevant pollution incident ongoing this will be flagged on this site too: https://environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles/

If the beach, like Heacham, has Pollution Risk Forecasting (see below), the bathing water status is also flagged daily by us in a 24-hour cycle by automatic national modelling which considers different parameters at each location. This forecasting is influenced by algorithms that show when the bacteria may be higher by considering factors such as rain, tide, sunlight and wind.

Sample protocols

We analyse samples using a set protocol for Escherichia Coli (E.C) and Intestinal Enterococci (I.E), 2 bacteria found in the gut of many animals such as humans, birds, dogs, and seals. These are used as faecal indicator organisms for other pathogens such as viruses.

Classification of bathing waters

The bathing water bacterial counts taken over the last 4 years are put through a complicated calculation which is set out in the regulations to get a figure which is then compared with the table below to give the classification. NB. If a beach is ‘poor’ for 5 years then it is de-designated.

Origin of bacteria

I.E. and E.C. bacteria are often from the faeces of a human or other animal including birds. They can be washed in from roofs (bird faeces), from pavements or roads through surface water systems during rainfall, from misconnections from homes or businesses into the surface water, issues with overflowing sewers or consented overflows, agricultural runoff, washed in at high tide after being deposited on beaches by animals, or deposited directly into the sea by birds or seals. The Heacham River runs through both urban and agricultural areas, which can potentially affect water quality. There are also combined sewer overflows, emergency overflows (from sewage pumping stations) and surface water outfalls within the catchment that can adversely impact the water quality.

Reasons behind poor water quality at Heacham

We have been investigating why the current classification for Heacham is poor. Our focus is on identifying and eliminating the human impacts to the environment be that sewage or those from other human activities. Sources we continue to investigate include:

• issues associated with urban drainage

• sediment harbouring bacteria

• the large numbers of wild birds and seals that use the area.

Being the largest estuarine system in the UK, The Wash is recognised as an internationally important site for waders and wildfowl under the Ramsar Convention, particularly in winter as well as during the spring and autumn migration, where it hosts hundreds of thousands of shorebirds. These species are part of the natural ecosystem and need to be protected; although they contribute to faecal matter in the estuary it is any human discharges and those associated with human activities that are our focus.

We are also considering the possibility that sandbar movement in The Wash has changed the flow of water over the last few years and may be preventing any bacteria from being ‘flushed out’ to sea. We are also looking into the potential for impacts from the rivers Great Ouse and Nene.

Our actions to improve the water quality at Heacham

We are working with the council, Anglian Water, and other stakeholders on actions to identify and then reduce any sources. This is quite a complex task as there is no one clear source at Heacham. The responsibility and powers to resolve different sources lies with various organisations and authorities. To aid our investigations into the reason for Poor Water Quality at Heacham, we have secured additional funding to carry out extra DNA analysis on selected samples we took during the 2023 bathing water season. This will help us understand the sources such as dog, bird or human, but the translation of the results is not a simple task and is not routinely carried out as it is extremely expensive. However, as we are committed to determining all inputs that are negatively impacting the water quality, we aim to undertake DNA analysis where appropriate.

We have been looking at sewers, agricultural land, other consented discharges, weather impacts, other monitoring data in the area and pollution incidents reported to us. We have an agricultural regulatory officer visiting farms in the local area to check compliance with environmental legislation. We are taking additional monthly bacterial samples from parts of the Heacham River to try and identify which part, if any, of the river has the most bacteria and investigate why.

We have taken sediment bacterial samples and extra rivers samples in August and September 2023 and sampled Anglian Water’s Heacham wastewater treatment plant which showed that the ultraviolet treatment was working effectively.

In August 2023 we visited over 90 properties in Heacham that are not connected to the main sewer system on South Beach Road and North Beach Road, to check for problems and provide advice and guidance to owners. We only found one small issue which we resolved very quickly. This work has shown that these properties are unlikely to be contributing significant bacterial loading to the river or bathing water.

Will Heacham move up a grade?

The classification for bathing waters is based on 4 years’ worth of data, which does contain some high results which indicate Heacham did not improve its rating in 2023. However, the results showed mostly low bacteria levels.

What is Pollution Risk Forecasting (PRF)?

There are some bathing waters in England where we know water quality is affected by factors such as rain, tide, or wind that we can measure and use to make a daily forecast of quality. At these sites, which include Heacham, we make active water quality forecasts called Pollution Risk Forecasts if factors that have previously been associated with reduced quality re-occur. This warns the public of a risk of reduced water quality to give an informed choice of where and when to bathe. It is not warning of an actual pollution incident occurring. It is important to recognise these forecasts are not absolute and that they are just a means to flag higher risk days than the annual classification average.

The main factors affecting Heacham in our PRF model are the day of the bathing season, wind speed and direction, total rainfall over 72hrs for the area 1km around the bathing water, and how high the tide is. PRFs are made each day at 08:30 and posted on swimfo (Bathing water profile data.gov.uk) shortly afterwards. These are our best estimate of the risk specific to each bathing water for that day.

We expect people to make their own decisions on what is an acceptable risk to them and will provide PRFs to help them make this decision.

Why is Heacham always listed as advice against bathing on Swimfo?

Heacham has been classified as ‘poor’ using the last 4 years’ of sampling results. This means that there is a precautionary advice against bathing at this site for the whole of this year’s season.

What can you do to help improve the water quality?

Reducing the gull and duck population in the area would reduce the amount of bird faeces, so disposing of litter into covered bins and not feeding the gulls or ducks would help.

If you own a property in the area and are not on the mains sewer, check that your sewage is not polluting the local ditches or river by checking for sewage odours, white strands in the streams, overflowing manhole etc.

Blocked pipes are one of the most common causes of sewer flooding in homes and can cause pollution. The public can help keep sewers clear by binning kitchen fats, oils and grease rather than putting them down the sink; and only flushing poo, pee & paper, not wipes and sanitary products.

 If you do see any water pollutions in the local area, please phone it into the Environment Agency on 0800 807060 – this is a free number, open 24 hrs a day and we can use the information you provide to target our future work.

What is Anglian Water doing to stop the bacteria?

Anglian Water are using UV disinfection technology at Heacham sewage treatment works all year. This helps kill E. coli and other bacteria that negatively impact bathing water quality. We welcome any investment that improves the quality of the water that Anglian Water discharge be that UV treatment, new storm tanks or greater capacity in, and improvements to, the sewerage network.