We are told by Harwich Town Council that they are very proud of our Blue Flag Beaches, however, when will they ask that the tests set down for analysis be undertaken?
What am I talking about?
According to the Environment Agency's website
http://maps.environment-agency.go...0&extraClause=SAMPLING_POINT~'11100'&extraClause=SAMPLE_YEAR~2006
there are five tests to be carried out, but at Dovercourt as at most of the UK beaches listed on the EA website only three tests are carried out.
Results of water samples evaluated for Salmonella and Enterovirus (plaque forming) are not published.
Seemingly this simple sleight of hand allows the EA to claim that Dovercourt has passed it's test. After all they reason, if it's not tested it cannot fail, can it?
If HTC want the public especially the tourist public to retain confidence in the Blue Flag award then they should demand from the EA that our beaches are submitted to the full rigour of the five tests.
For greater coverage of the state of our Blue Flag Beaches go to
http://www.marinet.org.uk/ukbw/gbeachg.html
I remember in another area that the FOE group campaigned for the sand to be tested too. Apparently the water tests OK sometimes if the sand is contaminated.
Particles cling to the sand but the water can still test clean then when the tide is out we play on the sand, dogs dig in it. We even eat it in our packed punches.
Is there more getting into the food chain than just the bits of beach that crunch between your teeth?
The Isle of Wight a few years back had a cluster of babies born with one upper limb missing and all the mothers had been bathing in the sea off the Isle of Wight whilst pregnant.
It was reported nationally. Bet it put a few tourists off that summer! And the papers said the sea was clean there. I think they have a blue flag beach don't they? Anyway they said there could be no connection between the bathing and the babies' birth defects. But I thought about that FOE information then and I wondered if the beach tested clean as well as the sea. Or maybe the sand under the sea wasn't tested at all?
I bet it hasn't been tested here. It obvioulsy is not a criteria for blue flags but it should be.
It would be nice to be reassured by HTC and the organisers of the Blue Flag Beach scheme that the issue of whether the sand is clean has been addressed.
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