Yorkshire Water Update

Scarborough and Whitby Area Constituency Committee

 22nd September 2023

Overview of Bathing Water

• The Bathing Water Directive sets out the requirements for:

• Monitoring and classifying bathing water quality

• Managing bathing water quality

• Providing information to the public on bathing water quality

• Under the Directive, bathing waters are classified annually into the following categories:

• Classifications are made using the previous four years of data (where available) – performance this year, will be impacted by data from 2021 onwards.

• Regulatory samples are taken by the Environment Agency throughout the bathing season (may-September) to determine the classification.

Scarborough Current Classifications

The 2023 classifications are based on sample results for 2018-2022.

Scarborough North is currently classified as Excellent.

Scarborough South is currently classified as Poor.

Scarborough Results Year to Date

Scarborough North Bay

Intestinal Enterococci (IE)           Escherichia coli (EC)

Scarborough South Bay

Intestinal Enterococci (IE)           Escherichia coli (EC)

Details on discharge rates in the Scarborough South Bay, and Scalby Beck

2021 to date discharge rates and durations in the Scarborough Area are detailed below.

We have seen an increase this year in line with increased rainfall on 2022.

Progress with the Discharge Reduction Plan

This asset management period, (AMP7) we had already planned to invest £147m in reducing discharges. We also announced, earlier this year, an additional £180m of investment. We have now identified 180 high discharge sites for this additional investment, where we are now conducting on site investigations and modelling to determine where we can have the largest impact to reduce spills. The target of this investment is to reduce spills 20% by 2025 from our 2021 figures.  In Scarborough we are accelerating the scheme to invest in Wheatcroft CSO as a priority.

In August 2022 the Government published their Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan, which includes 3 key targets. The first regards high priority sites, such as SSSIs and nature reserves, the second targets bathing waters and the third is an overall target storm overflows will not be permitted to discharge above an average of 10 rainfall events per year by 2050.

To ensure we meet or exceed these targets we have created a plan for storm overflow investment through to 2050. This includes over £1bn of investment between 2025 and 2030. We are working with stakeholders to collaborate on surface water removal such as sustainable urban drainage and other blue-green initiatives.

Levels of compliance with EA permits

The Environment Agency assess compliance with Environmental Permits. The findings of their inspections, audits and monitoring activities, reviews of monitoring and other data/reports are captured in a CAR form. Non compliances with a permit requirement are captured and given a CCS breach.

Yorkshire Water have not received any Non-compliance breaches for assets in the Scarborough or Whitby areas this year.

Overview of Partnership

Yorkshire Water currently work in a Partnership format with Local Councils and the Environment Agency to monitor, investigate and improve Bathing Water Quality across Yorkshire. The Governance Structure is made of Technical Action Groups, a Partnership Board and in development is a communications group.

In 2023 the Partnership funded a season long intensive investigation in Bridlington to identify potential sources of pollution that may contribute to poor bathing water quality and create an action plan to improve. If the results of this investigation are conclusive and successful there is scope to replicate this work at Scarborough in 2024.