The summer of 1999 will go on record as being one of the best ever for bathing water quality in Scotland. The final results for the 1999 bathing waters season, issued today by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, show that 88% of all identified bathing waters passed the mandatory European standards. This is a dramatic improvement upon last year’s figures, when the corresponding pass rate was only 52%.

This year, the number of waters which SEPA monitored for compliance with the EC Bathing Waters Directive increased from 23 to 60. Of these identified waters, 53 passed the mandatory standards, based on levels of bacteria which are indicators of contamination by faecal material. This year’s results are also notable for the number of beaches that achieved the more stringent guideline standards (40%), the highest percentage since records began in 1988.

"These results are very encouraging", said SEPA’s Head of Water Policy, Colin Bayes "The high number of guideline passes in particular is very good news to all those who make use of Scotland’s bathing waters, whether they be wind-surfers, scuba-divers or those paddling about on the shoreline. The good weather throughout the summer has undoubtedly helped matters, as this would have resulted in less pollution from sewerage overflows."

Despite the big improvement, however, Mr Bayes sees no room for complacency. "SEPA’s monitoring, and other research, clearly indicates that sewage effluent is, by far, the main cause of polluted coastal waters in Scotland. Under-investment in the past has meant that we are still faced with many inadequately-treated sewage discharges and sewers that are simply not big enough to cope with the volumes of sewage that they are receiving. Only through the planned major investment by the Water Authorities in improving sewerage infrastructure can the new Scottish Government’s goal of all bringing all identified waters up to European standards be achieved. One good year must not detract from this urgent need."

The full set of bathing water results for 1999 can be found on the SEPA web-site: http://www.sepa.org.uk.

NOTES

The Directive: The EC ‘Council Directive of 8 December 1975 concerning the quality of bathing water’ is designed to protect and enhance the quality of bathing waters throughout Europe. Scotland has 60 identified bathing waters, which are each tested annually 20 times between June and mid-September. The samples taken are tested for the presence of a number of parameters and it is the responsibility of SEPA to carry out the sampling and associated analytical work.

Mandatory standard: the water quality standard set by the EU, which Member States must observe. If achieved, a mandatory pass indicates good water quality. The mandatory standard is based on levels of faecal coliforms and total coliforms, which indicate the presence of pollution from human sewage or livestock excrement. For a bathing water to pass the mandatory requirements of the Directive, only one failure is allowed in these standards per year.

Guideline standard: EU water quality standard which is stricter than the mandatory standard and, if achieved, indicates excellent water quality.

Research: Following a number of failures on the Ayrshire coast in 1997, SEPA and West of Scotland Water commissioned a major research project to investigate the potential causes of the failures. The research, headed by Professor David Kay of the University of Leeds, concluded that sewage discharges direct to the marine environment are currently the major source of faecal organisms entering the coastal waters and were the main reason behind the failure of a number of Ayrshire’s bathing beaches in recent years. The report also identified that diffuse agricultural pollution, in conjunction with combined sewer overflows, is responsible for poor quality in certain river catchments which discharge into coastal waters.

Full report: SEPA is currently collating all the data from its monitoring of bathing waters and other recreational waters and is preparing a report for publication. The report will be available from SEPA Public Relationstowards the end of 1999.

Guideline Passes (24)	Mandatory Passes (29)	Fails (7)
Dunnet Bay	Southerness	Irvine-Gailes (New Town)
Dornoch (Caravan Park)	Sandyhills	Turnberry
Cullen	Rockcliffe	Ayr (South Beach)
Rosehearty	Brighouse Bay	Ettrick Bay
Fraserburgh (Philorth)	Carrick Bay	Stonehaven
Peterhead (Lido)	Girvan	St. Andrews (East Sands)
Balmedie	Prestwick	Eyemouth
Aberdeen	Troon (South Beach)
Montrose	Saltcoats/Ardrossan (South Beach)
Carnoustie	Millport, Cumbrae
St. Andrews (West Sands)	Machrihanish Bay
Kingsbarns	Luss Bay
Crail (Roome Bay)	Ganavan Bay
Elie (Woodhaven and Ruby Bay)	Morar Beach
Shell Bay	Loch Ness (Dores)
Aberdour (Silversands)	Nairn (Central Beach)
Gullane	Nairn (East Beach)
Yellowcraigs	Inverboyndie
Dunbar (Belhaven)	Fraserburgh
Dunbar East	Cruden Bay
Whitesands	Arbroath (West Links)
Thorntonloch	Kinghorn (Pettycur)
Pease Bay	Burntisland
Coldingham	Portobello West (Kingsroad)
	Portobello Central (James Street)
	Seton Sands/Longniddry
	North Berwick (West Bay)
	North Berwick (Milsey Bay)
	St. Abbs