SOS St Aubin report labelled 'unduly alarmist'

Friday 30 September 2016

Jersey’s Environment Department has hit back at a survey carried out by pressure group Save Our Shoreline saying its findings are "unduly alarmist not supported by the evidence."

SOS monitored water from the outfalls in St Aubin’s Bay and claimed to have found alarmingly high nitrate, nitrite, ammonia and hydrogen sulphide levels. The chemicals have been blamed for causing the sea lettuce problem, and in high enough levels, can be dangerous to humans and animals.

The Environment Department says the “research and sampling methods carried out by SOS are unclear and limited”, and goes on to say ‘the evidence is certainly not at a level that we, as regulators and scientists, are required and expected to achieve in order to make decisions to protect the environment on the public’s behalf.”

The department says it is safe to swim in the sea.

But it does admit the Island’s current sewage treatment plant isn’t up to the job. It’s old and failing the total nitrogen limit specified by the discharge permit. It says regulatory action has been taken in accordance with normal procedures. But, while extensive sampling and testing in St Aubin’s Bay suggests that the levels of nitrogen measured could be contributing to the growth of green seaweed, the levels are insufficient to cause concern to human or animal health.

The department says it’s trying to sort things out. Funding for a replacement plant has been agreed, and it should be operation by 2021. But it believes the main problem is the run off of chemicals from the land. It claims it’s been successfully working with farmers and landowners for some years to better manage the use of fertilisers and manures applied to land, and that this has cut levels. A Water Management Plan to be presented to the States later this year will include important initiatives and measures to further reduce levels of nitrates from land based sources.