Exmouth - Pollution Incident Response

We've issued South West Water (SWW) with a Local Enforcement Position (LEP). This sets out our enforcement position in relation to the temporary use of a new outfall from the Sewage Treatment Works in Lyme Bay, approximately 300m south of Straight Point (at National Grid Reference SY 0396 7914).

The change is intended to reduce the frequency of storm overflows affecting Exmouth Beach Bathing Water and improve water quality for the communities, wildlife and businesses that rely on it.

This is a temporary arrangement. SWW has applied to amend their permits to make the change permanent. We will be consulting on that application soon and will invite you to share your views.

Our marine specialists have reviewed SWW's modelling. The modelling indicates that diverting the discharge to the new outfall will not affect water quality at Exmouth and is not expected to adversely affect shellfish waters in Lyme Bay or Sandy Bay.

A Local Enforcement Position (LEP) is not a permit and it is not permission from the Environment Agency.

It is a regulatory decision that sets out circumstances where we would not normally take enforcement action against a specific activity. This only applies where:

• the conditions of the LEP are met
• the activity is temporary
• the risks are understood and controlled
• there are no unacceptable impacts on people or the environment

We consider requests for LEPs on a case-by-case basis. In exceptional circumstances, they enable us to take a pragmatic approach by setting out our enforcement position for a specific activity while continuing to protect people and the environment.

Before SWW can rely on the LEP, they must provide:

• a monitoring plan showing how they will assess the impact on Sandy Bay and Budleigh Salterton bathing waters, and on Sandy Bay and Lyme Bay West shellfish waters
• a contingency plan that sets out the actions they will take if the actual environmental impacts are worse than those predicted by the modelling

The conditions of the LEP also require that:

• the new outfall can only discharge settled storm sewage and secondary treated sewage effluent that has been disinfected by means of ultra violet (UV) irradiation
• use of the new outfall must not cause water quality to deteriorate

We have also made clear our expectation that SWW will complete upgrades to the Maer Lane sewage treatment works by 31 December 2028.

The LEP will apply until 11 January 2027, or until we have made a decision on SWW's permit applications, whichever comes first. If SWW fails to comply with the conditions of the LEP, or if use of the new outfall causes pollution, we will withdraw the LEP immediately.

We have duly made the permit variation applications South West Water have submitted. This means we have all the information we need to determine the permit variations. The next step is to consult you on the application documents, and we are working with representatives from Exmouth Town Council, ESCAPE, Budleigh Salterton Town Council and East Devon District Council to design a consultation that works for you. We will be in touch with more details about this soon.

We have also concluded our 13-month investigation into pollution incidents that took place in Exmouth in 2023 and 2024. Now that all relevant evidence has been collected, as regulator we have taken the decision to prosecute South West Water.

Ten charges have been laid at Exeter Magistrates’ Court and we await a date for the first hearing.

We’ve received the modelling results from South West Water today. SWW have informed us that early signs show the new outfall should not affect either protected shellfish water. Our marine specialists are now reviewing the data to confirm this.

If we reach the same conclusion, we will move forward with the permit application. We will then run a public consultation so you can review the documents and share your views. We’ll explain clearly how to take part.

In the meantime, South West Water plans to apply for a Local Enforcement Position. If we grant this, it would allow temporary use of the new outfall while we consult on and decide their permit application. A local Enforcement Position will only be granted if there is no risk posed to the environment or to our ability to protect it.

South West Water has also submitted a pre-application for upgrades to Maer Lane sewage treatment works.

We’ll update you again at the end of June.

Last week, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published its annual bathing water classifications for 2025.

These classifications are drawn from monitoring data from the Environment Agency and cover 451 English bathing waters. However, there were two bathing waters unassessed due to access issues bringing the total to 449.

Each bathing water will be classified into one of the following categories:

• Excellent
• Good
• Sufficient
• Poor

Across England this year, 93% (417) have been classes as ‘Excellent’, ‘Good’ or ‘Sufficient’, compared to 92% in 2024, while 32 sites have been classified as ‘Poor’.

The Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly (DCIS) region includes 154 designated Bathing Waters; this year 98% of them received an ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’ classification.

In Your Area:

Exmouth and Ladram Bay have remained at Excellent.

Under the Bathing Water Regulations 2013, some of the samples may have been disregarded if advice against bathing was issued at the time the sample was taken.

This is because a warning against swimming has been issued in advance and the conditions are not considered to be reflective of the actual water quality most people bathe in. Both Exmouth and Ladram Bay are eligible to have their samples disregarded. You can read more about this here: Bathing water classifications and short-term pollution – Creating a better place

Sandy Bay has moved from Sufficient to Good

Previous investigations found that pollution causes were 50% misconnections and 50% urban run-off. Most misconnections have now been resolved, as a result of extensive monitoring, sampling and tracing work completed by both the Environment Agency and South West Water (SWW).

We are part of an action group, alongside SWW technicians and beach owners to share and compare data and collaborate on improvements. Although improvements have been made in the catchment, there is still work to do. Current data suggests pollution sources to be 10% agricultural, 10% sewage, 70% urban run-off and 10% unknown. We will inspect all businesses and water company assets in the catchment and our misconnections surveys are ongoing.

Budleigh Salterton – Move from Excellent to Good

We have linked increased levels of both E.coli and Intestinal enterococci in samples to the Knowle Brook. This has led to a marginal deterioration in class from Excellent to Good.

We are working to identify the sources of these Faecal Indicator Organisms. We have added an additional sampling point on the Knowle which will aid our investigation. We may also run an agricultural campaign in 2026. We will review Budleigh Salterton East site data against the current statutory sampling site to test for significant difference in salinity and bacteria results.

The Otter catchment has been a priority for our Agricultural Regulatory teams since 2021, with the majority of farms in the catchment being inspected since that time. We have worked with Natural England and farmers on Catchment Sensitive Farming programmes to encourage better farming practices and improve water quality in the surrounding areas.

We inspect all water company assets in the catchment yearly and SWW have undertaken a programme of infiltration reduction work, started in 2024. It is hoped this will reduce the number of short duration spills from combined sewer overflows and will continue through the town in 2025.