St Agnes water tests find high levels of e-coli despite 'excellent' Environment Agency rating

A group of 'citizen scientists' in Cornwall say their water quality tests show drastically different results from the 'excellent' bathing water standard given by the Environment Agency.

The St Agnes Water Users Group says it follows the same methods and laboratory as the water regulator - but has found "alarmingly high levels of bacteria present in the water".

The group says this poses a health risk to people, particularly to children and vulnerable people.

The group has been taking weekly samples from the St Agnes stream where it enters the sea at Trevaunance Cove. Over 16 weeks, it says it regularly found high levels of E.coli and Intestinal Enterococci.

This provided a dramatically different result to the tests undertaken by the Environment Agency, which rates the water quality as excellent.

These findings come on the same day as the government says water bosses could face two years in jail for sewage dumping.

The Environment Agency says it tests the water where there are the most bathers - and samples water at a depth of one metre. The agency also said streams generally exhibit higher bacterial levels than the sea and this is not always because of sewage pollution.

South West Water also told ITV News it is impossible to know if the bacteria has come from sewage, saying it could also be as a result of agricultural or urban pollution.

Marianne Daysh, a member of tSt Agnes Water Users Group , said: "I've lived here for more than 40 years and I've seen this river run brown and stinking.

"And a lot of that I am sure is sewage.

"We do it by the river because this is the source of where pollution can enter the sea."

Members of the group say they decided to do their own research after people regularly reported seeing sewage in the sea water follow discharges from storm overflows.

Dianne Dunne swims with the St Agnes Bluetits throughout the year.

She said: "You can sometimes see and smell and taste 'an unpleasantness' shall we say. It is disgusting.

"When we've been collecting samples here, we've had families and parents come up and say we're worried is it safe? We want to know when it's safe.

"We don't want to scare people. We just want people to be informed and to know what they can do."

Working alongside Surfers Against Sewage, the water group's samples have been collected weekly and sent to Manchester University to filter out and grow the bacteria culture in a laboratory environment.

The group says the same tests as those used by the Environment Agency were used and found E.coli and Intestinal Enterococci in the water.

Kirsty Davis from Surfers Against Sewage says these results need to be taken seriously by the regulator and South West Water.

"Members of the public are paying for service and they are not receiving that. Part of the services is treatment of sewage," she said.

The Environment Agency told ITV News it picks its sample point by the "highest density of bathers on a beach" and takes a sample out to a metre depth.

It says it chooses not to take readings from the stream because by the time that water meets the sea it is diluted. They also said bacteria dies off in sea water and UV light.

“Streams generally exhibit higher bacteria levels than coastal bathing waters," a spokesperson said.

"Bacteria form part of a natural river ecosystem, have many sources and can be found at elevated levels throughout our natural freshwater streams; they are not always because of sewage pollution.

"It is for this reason that we use a sampling protocol which is consistent and offers people a choice on where they want to bathe.

"Our data shows that the water quality at our monitoring at Trevaunance Cove, St Agnes, is excellent through the bathing season which runs from May to September."

South West Water also says it cannot be sure the bacteria has come from sewage and not "agricultural" or "urban pollution".

A spokesperson said: “We are serious about tackling storm overflows and change of this scale takes time, ambition, and increased investment."

"We are investing significantly at Trevaunance Cove to reduce the impact from our network and maintain the excellent bathing water quality.”

The group is calling for testing all year around, saying the May to September bathing season does not include the times of year when most storm overflow releases occur.