All you need to know about Bathing Waters
- Pollution risk forecasts are predictions that use rainfall or other factors to assess when there may or may not be a risk of reduced bathing water quality. We can’t make these forecasts for all bathing waters as not all are at risk from these issues.
How do we monitor bathing waters?
We monitor over 450 bathing waters in England each year. Our job is to maintain and improve water quality and to do this we take over 7000 samples through the spring, summer and early autumn. We follow a strict sampling protocol so our data can be compared and use these sample results to give each beach or river a classification. Our bathing sites must achieve consistently good results over a four-year period to get the best classifications. We use these results to drive investment across all sectors.
There are a range of factors which influence water quality and every catchment is different. An unseasonably wet summer may affect results because of land run-off, sewage spills, pollution from agriculture and highway drainage. This temporarily affects water quality, however, if it happens frequently, it will affect the classification. Other factors that can influence the results include tides and wind.
On some beaches we issue water quality forecasts to give bathers information about daily water quality. These predict the water quality based on past results, the weather and tides. Our sampling is not designed to give instant information about if it’s safe to swim, what we do is to take a long-term view on how clean beaches and rivers are so people can make an informed choice where to bathe.
What will you do with the data you collect through the 'Who's in the sea today?' survey?
We are responsible for collecting bathing water data which includes bather numbers and other observations like dogs on the beach, litter and tar. We only visit Exmouth Beach weekly through the bathing season. It would be beneficial to have more data on bather numbers so we have more confidence on the bather usage at Exmouth Beach. To have a wider data set gives us the opportunity to validate our data which will give us more confidence, especially over weekends and into the evenings.
How do we test bathing water quality?
Read our blog to see how our scientists are testing the water samples collected by our sampling teams.
What is a Pollution Risk Forecast?
What is 'short-term pollution'?
Short-term pollution is pollution that has clear causes, can be predicted and is expected to affect the quality of a bathing water for less than 72 hours. We use pollution risk forecasting to let people know when this will happen.
How do bathing waters become designated?
Visit this page to find out about the criteria for a bathing water and how they become designated.
What were the bathing water results in 2024?
You can view bathing water results for all of England's bathing waters here.
What is the difference between Swimfo, Waterfit and the Safer Seas and Rivers app?
South West Water have their own system to inform bathers when their storm overflows operate, which
provides additional information on water quality for the public. WaterfitLive provides free alerts to the
public and beach managers, the Environment Agency and Surfers Against Sewage for beaches in
Devon and Cornwall. These alerts indicate when stormwater overflows may be operating to protect
people and property from internal sewer flooding, resulting in a temporary affect on bathing water
quality. Further information can be found on the SWW website here.
The Environment Agency's ‘Swimfo’, South West Water's ‘WaterFit Live’ and Surfers Against Sewage's
‘Safer Seas and Rivers Service’ are all different systems using different data and information, so the
warnings won’t always coincide.