Pease, We Need Full UV Protection All Year Round!

Surfers Against Sewage call for year-round protection for Pease Bay surfers

This year, Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) asked all UK water companies if they had any plans to reduce their sewage treatment outside the bathing season (May – September). Outside the bathing season is usually the best period for surf in the UK and reducing sewage treatment increases the health risks for surfers and waveriders.

When SAS asked Scottish Water if they planned to reduce their sewage treatment, thus increasing the health risk to surfers and waveriders, they replied with “It is not a question of switching off treatment outside the bathing season, but rather switching on extra treatment during it”. Just how stupid do they think we are?

Pease Bay is one of the places Scottish Water plan to reduce the levels of sewage treatment outside the bathing season. It is also one of Scotland’s most popular surfing breaks, consistently producing its best surf from September to April, and therefore is most heavily used outside the bathing season.

We therefore call on the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) to immediately revise the Water Use License so that tertiary level treatment remains an all year-round process for Cove STW, until such time that it is shown that recreational water users do not suffer a reduced threat to their health from turning off the UV-light disinfection process here, or it is found that recreational water user numbers are not using this beach in significant numbers on a regular basis outside the bathing season.

SAS applaud water companies all over the UK who are trying to reduce their carbon footprint, however, this cannot come at the cost of increased health risks for surfers and waveriders. SAS are calling on water companies to generate clean and sustainable energy through their sewage treatment process and embrace new technologies that will allow them to harness more of this energy and increase efficiency.

In 2008, SAS successful campaigned against Northumbrian Water reducing their levels of treatment outside the bathing season and as a result the Environment Agency (EA) has ruled that water companies must prove an absence of water users and impact on water quality before they can switch off the treatment. SAS believe this sets a strong precedent and believes that SEPA should provide the Scottish public with the same levels of protection.

If you plan to use Pease Bay outside the bathing season please sign our petition. This will help SAS to demonstrate to SEPA that Pease Bay is well used outside the bathing season and a significant number of water users are being put at risk from Scottish Water’s actions.

Sign the petition here

• Newquay, (Fistral’s South end) on 29th July
• Croyde (Baggy Point End) on 30th July
• Bournemouth (By Bournemouth Pier) on 31st July
• Llangennith (Hill End Campsite) on 1st August
• Saltburn-by-Sea (By the pier) on 2nd August
• Brighton (Yellow Wave, Madeira Drive) on 3rd August

Regional round ups:

NEWQUAY was hit by torrential rain, but over 40 volunteers picked up over 160kgs of litter. We even found a shopping trolley! Everyone was drenched but spirits were high and the effort was appreciated.

CROYDE was sunny and thanks to the local surf club, our local SAS Rep Mikey Corker of Loose Fit Surf Shop and Surf South West Surf School, was the best attended with over 250 beach cleaners. Even though Croyde is cleaned regularly our army of supporters found paving slabs, cookers and lots of broken glass as well as the usually plethora of plastics. More than 500kgs were collected.

BOURNEMOUTH, as was the case last year, was full of cigarette butts. Cigarette butts take 15 years to break down as they are made from 12,000 plastic fibres. 1 cigarette butt can pollute 3 litres of seawater. The 40 volunteers only picked up 65kgs but we removed thousands upon thousands of cigarette butts during the clean

LLANGENNITH was where we picked up the most litter. Just under 100 volunteers picked up over 800kgs of rubbish, including 3 car wheels and a burnt lump of fishing net that was too heavy to be weighed! As with all the beaches, the majority of the marine litter was plastics.

SALTBURN had the keenest volunteers with young and old rolling up their sleeves. A special thanks to Nick Noble for promoting the event locally. We found 4 syringes and lots of cotton buds on Saltburn, a worrying sign off a recent raw sewage spill, probably associated with the recent heavy rainfall. Again there were several car tyres and even half a tractor tyre that contributed to 486kgs collected by 100 volunteers.

BRIGHTON is a deceptive beach, as it’s mostly pebbles the litter is harder to see. But we still found bags of it. Again loads of cotton bud sticks and beach-users litter. We even found Nemo (a toy clown fish).

The 2009 SAS Making Beaches Barefoot Friendly tour built on the success of last year’s efforts. It’s a great day where we can offer everyone the opportunity to engage with and protect an environment they care about.

Andy Cummins, campaign officer, SAS, said “It was a great achievement collecting over 2 tonnes of litter from the 6 beaches we visited. The majority of the 2 tonnes was plastics, and if we hadn’t removed it from the beach it would never have truly broken down in the environment. These beaches weren’t chosen because they are especially dirty, they were chosen because they are average beaches and we could collect similar levels of litter from beaches all over the country. They were also chosen because they had a strong community to help SAS with the clean up, and at every beach clean the locals did themselves proud!”

The beach cleans were followed by a delicious, free BBQ on the beach for all volunteers organised by Barefoot. And after the BBQ volunteers, friends and family enjoyed an evening of fun surf quizzes and free Barefoot wine.

Whether you’re a part of the local community or you just fancy rolling up your sleeves and getting involved, SAS and Barefoot need your help make our British beaches ‘Barefoot Friendly’.

This year the SAS Barefoot Friendly Beach Cleaning Tour will be visiting:

• Newquay on 29th July
• Croyde on 30th July
• Bournemouth on 31st July
• Llangennith on 1st August
• Saltburn-by-Sea on 2nd August
• Brighton on 3rd August

The 2009 campaign builds on the successes of last year’s SAS Barefoot Friendly tour efforts where over 400 people took part to help remove over 1 tonne of litter from the British coastline.

Starting at 3pm, the afternoon clean-up sessions will kick off with a full introduction and briefing from the respected eco-campaigners at SAS. Each volunteer will then be given gloves and a rubbish bag and the marine litter-picking will commence. All volunteers need bring is suitable clothing for the weather.

The clean-up will be followed by a delicious, free BBQ on the beach for all volunteers from 5pm until 6pm organised by Barefoot. For those who want to stay on afterwards, volunteers, friends and family can enjoy an evening of fun surf quizzes and free Barefoot wine from 6.30pm.

The quiz will take place at the following venues:

• Newquay: The Windswept Cafe on South Fistral Beach
• Croyde: The Manor, St Mary’s Road
• Bournemouth: Bar Vin, Old Christchurch Rd
• Llangennith: King’s Head Hotel
• Saltburn-by-Sea: Community Room, Foreshore, Lower Promenade
• Barefoot Bar, NIVEA SUN Yellowave Beach Sports Venue, Madeira Drive, Brighton

There are limited spaces for each tour stop, so please book early to secure your free place. For more information about the campaign and to sign up, please contact Andy Cummins at SAS on 01872 555950 or andy@sas.org.uk. Alternatively write to Andy Cummins, SAS Unit 2, Wheal Kitty Workshops, St Agnes, Cornwall, TR5 0RD

Broadbench is a quality wave in Kimmeridge Bay, described by many as one of Britain’s best.  Unfortunately it falls right on the outer boundary of a MoD firing range.  SAS are not asking the MoD to reduce their use of this important firing range. However, SAS believe there is a compromise that will ensure surfers and waveriders can have 100% access to Broadbench without impacting on the MoD’s full use of the firing range.

We are calling on the Secretary of State for Defence to implement SAS’s compromise, changing where the MoD currently fire from.  This will in turn change the direction of the MoD’s firing and could leave Broadbench outside the boundary of the firing range.  It will not impact on the MoD’s use of the firing range, leaving surfers and waveriders with 100% access to Broadbench and the MoD full use of their range.

International Surfing Day (ISD), sees surfing events taking place all over the world. There will be events in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia but nothing like the Gathering.  SAS expect the Gathering to be the best-supported event with over 350 surfers and supporter actively participating at the paddle out protest on ISD.

Andy Cummins, Surfers Against Sewage Campaign Manager says:  “This unprecedented level of support from UK surfers really highlights the importance the SAS Protect Our Waves Campaign.  Broadbench is a special wave with some special surfers protecting it.  Today, International Surfing Day, the UK water sports community stood up for their rights, and lefts!  We’re now calling on the Secretary of State for Defence to do everything in his power to implement a compromise at Broadbench.”

Guy Penwarden, local Broadbench surfer and ABBA campaigner says:  “Today SAS, ABBA and hundreds of UK surfers united to protect Broadbench, a special wave, a jewel in the British surfing crown.  Surfers and the MoD can use this area without conflict and we hope the Secretary of State for Defence will recognise this. ”

For more information contact Andy Cummins on 01872 555 950 / 07711 767 548 or andy@sas.org.uk

The ABBA website is www.broadbench.co.uk

Over the last few years we’ve been the length and breadth of the country and met some great people that are passionate about protecting and improving their coastal environment for all to enjoy. This year’s tour was no different with keen audiences checking out the latest SAS campaigns and watching our very own eco-surf documentary – View From The Greenroom.  

This year’s tour took a west coast route, with stops in North Devon, South and North Wales, gateway to Scotland’s West Coast, Glasgow and hub of Northern Ireland surfing – Portrush.

With our watery ‘playgrounds’ under threat, those attending the talks were able to find out how issues like climate change and marine litter are choking our blue planet, from SAS campaigners.  We also spoke about the key pollution issues of tomorrow and supporters got the inside track on how to campaign effectively in their own back yards with lessons in behind the scenes creative campaigning that SAS use in achieving victories for the environment.  

Richard Hardy, SAS Campaigns Director says: “It was great to get out around our beautiful coastline to share what’s good and what’s not about using the UK’s beaches for recreation. We hope we’ve helped inspire a new batch of eco-surf warriors to help protect and preserve their breaks from damage in the future”.

This year’s tour was supported by Patagonia Footwear. Thanks to them we were able to raffle off a pair of Patagonia Shoesand organic cotton shopping bags each night. Those entering the raffle during the tour stops will also go into a draw  at the end of May, where they could yet win a brand new Eco-board.

Duncan Holme from Patagonia Footwear says: “Patagonia Footwear was proud to supporting Surfers Against Sewage on their Grassroots Tour and for helping us all to think about our environmental footprint”

We’re also pleased that the EA has partially rejected the Northumbrian Water application to turn off Ultra-Violet disinfection at Howdon over the same period, instead only allowing a turn off from December to March. This is relatively good news for the north-east premier surfing spot, Tynemouth a key surfing competition venue. In fact the sewage effluent plume from Howdon tends to generally affect South Shields, used much less by recreational water users, so Tynemouth should maintain its top-notch water quality all year round regardless.

The EA did however grant UV turn offs from October to April at Hendon, Billingham, Seaton Carew and Bran Sands as these were shown to discharge in bathing areas where there is little or no bathing or immersion watersports taking place in the areas that would be affected by turning off the UV treatment.

With the EA making use of SAS methodology in determining recreational water use in these areas, SAS can understand the justification for UV turn offs in this instance.

However, SAS would warn other water companies across the country who may now seek to apply for winter UV sewage turn off’s against an easy ride. Northumbrian Water’s blanket applications and poor recreational water user survey methodology were shown to be inappropriate and poorly considered. With recreational water sports such as surfing, booming in the UK and participants using the water all year round it will prove difficult for them to seek seasonal UV turn offs at popular beaches.

Richard Hardy, SAS Campaigns Director says: “SAS are satisfied that the outcome of these applications will maintain clean, safe recreational water for the majority of water users in the North East. However, we believe that water companies could become much more energy efficient in other areas of their business first, before they apply to turn off UV disinfection. This is the laziest option for saving energy as you’re just flicking a switch from ‘on to off’ but reducing water quality, potentially compromising it for the health of those individuals using the sea. We’re stoked that the key beaches of Saltburn and Tynemouth won’t be affected from next year and will strive hard to protect other well used beaches around the country from similar moves by water companies”.

Nick Noble, a Saltburn surfer and regional representative for SAS says: “The local surfers will delight in this decision after a hard hitting campaign launched by SAS in October 2006. We look forward to running our 2008 Autumn Open Surfing Competition in the safe knowledge we’ll have retained the highest standards of water quality to compete in without fear of falling sick!”

Plastic Pellets

SAS campaigners have focused their attention on plastic and polystyrene pellets. These are the very raw materials that many of today’s plastic products are moulded from, yet millions of them are being deposited around the UK’s coastline.

Little more than a few millimetres in diameter, the pellets, which have been nicknamed ‘mermaids tears’ by campaigners, are the second most common litter item found on UK beaches (Marine Conservation Society’s 2007 Beachwatch data). By their very nature they do not biodegrade, absorb harmful polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in concentrations up to a million times greater than the surrounding seawater and they can also be a deadly threat to sea life, which mistake them for food.

Over the past few months, SAS investigators have filmed at several plastic injection-moulding factories in Cornwall, documenting poor housekeeping practice, which is responsible for spilled pellets making their way into local waters and eventually the ocean.

In particular, we documented spilled pellets routinely left outside the factory premises, clusters of plastic and polystyrene pellets inside storm drain grills, pellets floating in their masses inside drains outside factories and wind-blown pellets strewn around other industrial premises nearby to the factories.  

The film can be viewed here www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFfbhhIVt3I

We also filmed on Porthtowan beach, local to SAS campaigning headquarters in St Agnes, which is a magnet for this type of plastic litter. Here we documented rock pools full of plastic pellets and a tide line dominated by this micro litter.

In October 2007, SAS campaigners delivered a 500ml-sized bottle full to the cap with plastic pellets to British Plastic Federation (BPF) bosses in London. Inside the bottle were 10,000 pellets collected exclusively from Porthtowan beach. SAS were heartened by the industry’s response to this and plans were made for a code of conduct to be developed in the UK to achieve zero pellet loss as a priority for the plastics industry. This would be a great step forward, though it has not yet been established in the UK (though has in the USA under the banner Operation Clean Sweep).

However, SAS fears that many of the smaller factories that operate outside the BPF will continue to operate with poor housekeeping unless an industry wide solution is developed. None of the factories SAS filmed at are members of the BPF for instance.

SAS believes there is now an urgent need for plastic and polystyrene pellets to be contained and reclaimed and a culture of behavioural change adopted by the plastics industry for zero pellet loss, so they can play their part in preventing this escape route for their product. This should also be extended to ensure that the shipping of plastic pellets is carried out with the same ethos, to help in prevention of plastic pellet loss via shipping containers, another route believed to be responsible for their escape into the water environment.

Richard Hardy, SAS Campaigns Director says, “Our investigation has confirmed plastic factories are guilty of poor housekeeping practices and so contribute to plastic pellets escaping into the water environment, sadly helping them become established as one of the worst offending beach litter items in the UK. With a committed effort from the plastics industry to improve housekeeping we could see a marked improvement. Surfers take great pride in protecting and preserving the beaches they and others use for recreation and this is a problem we want the plastic industry to prevent with immediate effect”.

Beach Clean

Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) have teamed up with Barefoot wine to launch a nationwide beach clean-up tour this summer. The week-long anti beach litter tour will encourage people to get down to their local beach and do their bit to make it clean and safe for all to enjoy.

The SAS Makes Beaches Barefoot Friendly tour stops at:

Porthtowan, Cornwall                                     28th July

Porthcawl, Wales                                            29th July

Bournemouth                                                  30th July

Brighton                                                           31st July

Cromer                                                            1st August

Tynemouth                                                      2nd August

Andy Cummins, campaign officer, SAS, said “Marine litter is a huge problem on beaches all over the country and by the very definition, we, (humans), are responsible for this marine litter in the marine environment.  So this tour gives beach lovers a great opportunity to make a real and very positive difference on your local beach!  It’s really important that people take an interest, but it’s also really important that people have fun doing it. The beach cleans we organise are really enjoyable, educational and are a great way to bring local people from all walks of life together.”

Each beach clean will start at 2pm.  The afternoon will kick off with a full introduction and briefing from the SAS campaigners. All volunteers will then be furnished with gloves and a rubbish bag and the beach clean will commence. All volunteers need bring is suitable clothing for the weather.   (Under 16s must be accompanied by a responsible adult.)

The beach clean will be followed by a delicious, free beach BBQ for all volunteers!  For those who want to stay on afterwards, volunteers, friends and family can enjoy an evening of fun surf quizzes and free Barefoot wine at a near by local watering hole.  Everyone is welcome to join in the fun!

  Porthtowan – Blue BarPorthcawl – Jolly SailorBournemouth – Bar VinBrighton – NIVEA SUN Yellowave Beach Sports Venue Cromer – The Wellington Hotel

Tynemouth – Turk’s Head

Emily Smith, marketing manager, Barefoot wine, said “It is a real honour for Barefoot wine to work in partnership with SAS on the ‘Making Beaches Barefoot Friendly’ campaign. Beaches are such an important part of our environment and it’s vital that we treat them with respect so that they remain fun, clean and safe places for us to enjoy.”

A limited number of spaces are available for each clean-up so get in quick! For more information about the campaign and to sign up, please contact Andy Cummins at SAS on 01872 555950 or andy@sas.org.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Alternatively, visit www.sas.org.uk/campaign/littertour or write to Andy Cummins, SAS Unit 2, St Agnes, Cornwall, TR5 0RD.

   For more information about Barefoot wine, please contact Izzy Shirley on 020 7492 0915 or Isabel.shirley@77pr.co.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Due to the calls made by SAS, today finally sees the release of the British Plastic Federation’s (BPF) Operation Clean Sweep (OCS) guidance manual. OCS is aimed at improving British plastic factories efficient use of plastic pellets, advising them on just how to keep hold of their precious raw material, and importantly, keep them off our beaches and coastlines.
We are stoked to finally see this guidance being released, which should help clean up beaches right around the UK!
Have a great weekend

Dorset Perfection

The Gathering will be a mass paddle out at Kimmeridge to demonstrate how significant and   
passionate the UK’s surfing and wave-riding communities are, not least local Bournemouth and Dorset surfers. Winning this campaign will set a  strong precedent for protection of all waves and all waveriders’ rights to access them, so all surfers have  a vested interest! The Gathering will form the foundations for the Broadbench campaign and we need the foundations to be as strong as possible. We need you to attend!

Broadbench is a quality wave in Kimmeridge Bay, described by many as one of Britain’s best. Unfortunately it falls right on the outer boundary of a MoD firing range. Obviously SAS are not asking the MoD to reduce their use of this important firing range. However, there is a compromise that will ensure surfers and waveriders can have 100% access to Broadbench without impacting on the MOD’s full use of the firing range.

We are calling on the MoD to revert to a previous firing station, changing where they fire from. This will in turn change the direction of their firing and leave Broadbench outside the boundary of the firing range. Leaving surfers and waveriders with 100% access to Broadbench without it impacting on the MoD in any way.

We are meeting for the Gathering at Kimmeridge Bay 10am, Saturday the 20th of June at 10am, it will be finished by 11.30. Please bring your wetsuit and surfboard/windsurf/kite board/kayak etc… Parking is £4 so please car share. It will be a fun event and your chance to be an active part of this solution based Protect Our Waves SAS action in association with ABBA.

For more information contact Andy Cummins on 01872 555 950 / 07711 767 548 or andy@sas.org.uk