Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) have been left disappointed by the Public Services failure to recommend a future policy of full sewage treatment in the latest Billet D’Etat, due to go forward to the States on the 31st October 2007.

It seems Public Services only significant recommendation in the short term is to spend what could amount to £16 million pounds in maintaining the status quo. This is the estimated maximum cost of refurbishing the current Belle Greve Wastewater Disposal facility, which still allows for the continued discharge of the island’s sewage raw to sea, as there is no inclusion for higher standards of sewage treatment.

SAS recently described the Public Services approach to this issue as one of ‘fudging’ and this seems to be what we are getting from the latest report.

Public Services are recommending a £600,000 Marine Environmental Impact Assessment to be undertaken over a 5-year period to establish the impact of current wastewater discharges. No doubt this will delay any future decision making on whether there is a need to upgrade the level of treatment, but surely there is enough scientific evidence to already suggest that discharging ‘raw’ untreated sewage to sea, does increase the health risks for recreational water users and is deemed by many not to be a socially acceptable practice any more.

In reality little has changed in the recommendations being made in this Billet D’Etat than what was included in the previous one issued on 25th January 2006. The last one concluded that an initial EIA be done to monitor the impact of marine discharges and this is again essentially what the States will be asked to decide on at the October meeting.

SAS have taken some comfort in the fact the Guernsey’s Health and Social Services Department also believes ‘a 5 year marine environmental impact assessment would be widely interpreted by the local community, the media and other jurisdictions as merely putting off making a difficult decision’ (ref:1977 of Billet D’Etat XXI 2007) and we are also encouraged by comments made by the Commerce and Employment Department that believes the ‘Island takes positive steps to move towards the installation of, at least, a full secondary treatment wastewater disposal plant’ (Ref 1978 Billet D’Etat XXI 2007) and that ‘concerns often expressed regarding the Island’s current methods of wastewater disposal are unlikely to diminish in the future, and therefore it is likely that from time to time these methods will be cause of adverse publicity for the island’ (Ref 1978 Billet D’Etat XXI 1978).

Surfers Against Sewage will be writing to all Deputies in advance of the States meeting on October 31st, expressing the need to commit to a ‘full sewage treatment policy for the Island including a timeframe for completion’