Water

River Quality

The Government has set targets that 98% of the rivers on the Island should achieve fair and above quality measured by biological and chemical monitoring.

Monitoring carried out since 1995 has shown compliance with these targets.

Water Pollution Act

In order for the river quality to be maintained and possibly improved in the face of increased developmental pressures, it is necessary to exercise controls over the discharges to our rivers.

This requirement has been recognised for some time and, as a result, the Water Pollution Act (1993) is planned to be fully enacted during early 2005. This would enable the issuing of licences for discharges of trade and sewage effluent, the taking of legal proceedings for discharging effluent without or in breach of the conditions of a licence, and the provision for setting regulations for preventing pollution.

River Pollution Incidents

The Department of Local Government and the Environment has issued the 7th annual report detailing River Pollution incidents investigated on the Island in 2003. A copy of this report can be viewed or downloaded at the bottom of this page.

Previous reports detailing pollution incidents, dating back to 1997, have been compiled by the Government Laboratory. Responsibility for producing these reports has now been passed to the Environmental Protection Unit whose staff now have specific duties under the Water Pollution Act 1993.

Thirty six pollution incidents were reported to Government Departments in 2003 and, of these, 25 were substantiated following investigation. One of the confirmed incidents was major, 2 were significant and 22 were minor (of localised environmental impact). None of the pollutions in 2003 caused a long-term effect on river quality.

The year 2003 showed a continuation in the downward trend of sustantiated incidents. Types of pollutants were generally similar to previous years with the main differences being an increase in oil derived incidents and a decrease in farm pollutions. For a comparison of the trends in river pollution incidents between 1997-2003,please see the table below.

The report is published as part of the Department's commitment to providing quality information on the state of the Island's environment, and the protection of freshwater fisheries. This report (in conjunction with existing river monitoring) is enabling trends in river quality to be identified and has helped with the setting of river quality objectives.

For further information, please contact Phil Styles on 01624-685885, or e-mail him on phil.styles@gov.im.

Bathing Water Monitoring

Sea water sampling following the procedure set out in the 1976 European Directive on Bathing Water (76/160) is carried out at 19 beach locations throughout the Island.

The samples are subjected to microbiological analysis for faecal indicator organisms the results from which allow the water to be categorised into "poor", "good" and "excellent" qualities. These results are updated weekly on 20 occasions between May and September and they are displayed at prominent locations near the beaches in order to inform beach users.

Recent trends have shown improvements in quality at those beaches in the East and South where sewage discharges have been removed and connected to the IRIS scheme for treatment at the new Meary Veg sewage treatment works.

The location of the sampling beaches, proximity of sewage outfalls and levels of treatment given to the sewage can be seen as follows:

For further information, please contact Dr P D Styles on (01624) 685885, or e-mail phil.styles@gov.im

The results of Bathing Water Chart 2007 are available to view in the table below. In addition, weekly updates for 2008 can also be viewed below.

Please also see our Bathing Water Page within the Government Laboratory's section of the website.

Downloadable Documents
Bathing Water Chart - 26 September 2008 (101 kb) Format:Acrobat PDF File Bathing Water Chart
River Pollution Incidents - 2003 (1803 kb) Format:Acrobat PDF File Environmental Protection Unit

You will need Adobe Acrobat to download documents that are PDFs, this is available free by following this link:

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