So many more questions

Following the plastic pellet pollution at Camber in October last year, the team from local environment charity Strandliners have continued to monitor the damage caused by the millions of bio-beads. Director Dominic Manning says the charity cannot work with the company responsible for the pollution – Southern Water – and explains why there are so many more questions that need answering about what happened.

The bio-bead spill on Camber Sands has been closely watched by Strandliners. We have been collecting data on environmental pollution to our rivers and seas for quite some time now.

The spill should never have happened in the first place, this was a knowable risk which profit-driven Southern Water and the craven regulators chose to ignore.

Of course, we want to see as many of these beads collected as soon as possible, as Nurdle are proving can be done, to mitigate the environmental damage they are causing. It is also quite right that Southern Water should lead on this clean up. It’s their mess after all.

But is Southern Water trustworthy? Investigations by the Environment Agency and Ofwat have revealed a pattern of negligence, inadequate investment, and deliberate actions that harm the environment and human health.

For example, Southern Water was fined £126 million by Ofwat in 2019 for wastewater treatment failures and misreporting. Ofwat found that Southern Water failed to operate a number of wastewater treatments works properly, including not making the necessary investment in a timely manner. Southern Water’s failures led to equipment breakdowns and unpermitted spills of wastewater into the environment.

In July 2021 Southern Water was sentenced to pay a record £90 million in fines for widespread pollution after pleading guilty to 6,971 unpermitted sewage discharges. The case was the largest criminal investigation in the Environment Agency’s 25-year history. Southern Water deliberately presented a misleading picture of compliance to the Environment Agency, hindering the proper regulation of the company.

Sewage spills are a regular occurrence. Last year, Southern Water had 29,355 spills over 304,537 hours. While not the highest number of spills in the country, Southern Water was cited as one of the companies with the most serious pollution incidents in 2024, contributing to the 15 serious pollution incidents from the company out of a UK total of 75. Critics have raised concerns over the number of spills, especially those that allegedly occurred during dry weather or when the plants were not at operating capacity.

Strandliners cannot work with Southern Water on the clean-up of the bio-beads spill, not least because we would be forced to do so under their terms, forfeiting our independence and our ability to hold the company to account. Instead we will support the Environment Agency in its ongoing criminal investigation of Southern Water and continue with our own data surveys, co-operating with Rother District Council.

We are sceptical of the information that is being provided by Southern Water and have questions:

• A recent chemical analysis of the bio-beads was carried out by Prof Andreas Baas, an expert in microplastics in coastal environments, and his team at King’s College London university. They found the bio-beads contained antimony, barium, lead, rubidium, strontium, cadmium, thorium and arsenic. Southern Water has not commented on this. Why not?

• Dr Tom Scanlon produced a drift model to predict where the bio-beads might have spread since their release from the outlet serving the Eastbourne sewage treatment plant. It took 10 days for Southern Water to answer simple questions to help reduce the variables for this model. Southern Water has also produced a drift model but not made it available to the public, preventing us from getting a better understanding of where the beads might wash up. Why not?

• Since the spill was identified, Southern Water has been intentionally vague about the number of bio-beads released, downplaying the extent of the spill. Shortly after the bio-beads were spotted at Camber Sands, Southern Water estimated the spill at about 40 tonnes. In the following week, this was reviewed downwards to under 10 tonnes, which Southern Water – after pressure from us to do so – stated as equating to 312 million beads. On 26 November, the figure was further revised downwards, this time to 4.67 tonnes, with Southern Water stating this amounts to 99 million bio-beads. However on a pro rata basis, and from our own calculation of weight to unit ratio, this should amount to 145 million. Also, we do not understand on what basis Southern Water can provide such an accurate figure of 4.67 tonnes, given that the last time they carried out an audit of the bio-beads in the tanks in the wastewater treatment works in Eastbourne was in 2023. What are the correct figures or will we never know?

• There has been no written methodology provided for how the beads are collected and quantified, again adding uncertainty to the process. Operatives may be collecting as many bio-beads as possible that have landed at Camber Sands but even after a process of filtering, cleaning and separating from organic and other matter cannot separate them from other microplastic pieces. Yes, it’s good to see these other plastics removed too, but for accounting purposes, these shouldn’t be added to the number of bio-beads recovered. The firm of consultants employed by Southern Water to monitor the clean-up, Adler & Allan, does not appear to have any previous experience of primary microplastic spills. Consultants are in effect having to “learn on the job” Who is overseeing Southern Water’s clean-up?

• There have been previous losses of bio-beads. John Penicud of Southern Water had stated at the public meeting in Rye on 13 November that there has been no previous bio-bead loss from any of its facilities. However, a report prepared by the Cornish Plastic Pollution Coalition dated 2018 quotes Southern Water admitting that “the average annual expected loss of pellets from our Eastbourne BAFF treatment plant is 0.3%. Unfortunately, collecting any lost pellets from the sea or the sludge treatment stream is simply not practical.” This plant alone uses 1000 tonnes of bio-beads, which equates to an annual loss of 3 tonnes – or approx. 94 million beads – a year, on average. How many bio-beads have been lost since the plants run by Southern Water opened?

• Southern Water’s Pollution Incident Reduction Plan makes no reference to bio-beads, despite the very real risk of plastic pollution. Nowadays every event anywhere needs a risk assessment to ensure risks are minimised. All community groups write them, we write them and yet Southern Water doesn’t consider it necessary. Why not?

Our criticism is not limited to Southern Water. This is also a failure of the regulators to not recognise the risk of plastic pollution emanating from sewage treatment plants. The water and wastewater regulator, Ofwat, has yet to comment on the spill.

Ofwat’s vision states, “As the economic regulator for the water and wastewater sector in England and Wales, Ofwat plays a critical role in ensuring a secure and sustainable water sector that acts in the best interests of all of its customers, communities and the environment.” In the light of this latest environmental disaster, it’s clear that the regulator has failed dismally.

We know that Ofwat is to be abolished, following a candid assessment of the water sector’s problems by the Independent Water Commission’s final report earlier this year,. It will be replaced by a new water regulator that combines Ofwat’s responsibilities with the work of the Drinking Water Inspectorate and the water-related environmental responsibilities of the Environment Agency and Natural England. But what happens until then to keep rapacious water companies accountable?

Finally, when was it ever a good idea to create an industrial process that used billions of tiny plastic pellets that had the potential to escape and destroy the wildlife and habitats around us? Surely this shows the complete disregard of the natural world for the benefit of humans and money. It has to stop, not just with these bio-bead wastewater treatment works but in all situations where plastic pellets can be released into the environment. We are calling for a nationwide ban on the use of any plastic media in wastewater treatment works, with the technology to be phased out as soon as practicably possible.

Rye News welcomes all opinion pieces on issues that affect life in Rye and the surrounding villages. If you would like to add yours to our Opinions section email info@ryenews.org.uk.

Image Credits: Dominic Manning , Nurdle .