Sewage disposal is 'unacceptable'

FULL sewage treatment should be the island's number one capital project. Environment Department member David de Lisle said now was the time to clean up the coastal waters.

But opinion is still divided on the issue, not least on the part of former Public Thoroughfares Committee chairman Peter Bougourd, who has long associations with the current method of disposing of liquid waste.

Public Services and Environment's Green Paper, which acts as a consultation document, will be discussed at the States meeting this week.

They have recently held two well-attended public meetings on the issue.

'The existing method of sewage disposal is no longer acceptable and a complete clean-up of our coastal waters is long overdue,' said Deputy de Lisle.

'We have to redress the negative publicity that the island has received in the international press to this pollution problem as quickly as possible.'

UK campaign group Surfers Against Sewage has made Guernsey its top target.

'This has to be our number one capital project in future - proper sewage treatment for Guernsey - to clean up this mess as quickly as possible and I have written to Treasury and Resources stating this,' said Deputy de Lisle.

'The pollution of Belle Greve beach and outlying coastal waters is a disgrace. The public perception of pollution, health risks and poor bathing water quality standards have to be tackled as a matter of urgency.'

He added that in recent years the island had targeted as a priority economic growth and related expansion in social services.

'Today, the priority has to be that of upgrading environmental standards. It is not good enough to pass these problems on to future generations to resolve.'

The review of sewage disposal and the initiatives contained in the consultation document provide renewed hope for the future, he added.

The PTC had political responsibility for sewage disposal before Public Services took on the role.

Mr Bougourd joined the former in 1984 and became president in 1995 before being ousted as a deputy in the 2004 elections.

He warned that the so-called black hole looming in 2008 was in fact a trench.

'It seems to me to be absolutely the wrong time to commit ourselves to any form of accelerated sewage treatment. What we're doing now treats the sewage quite well.'

He said a plant required a huge injection of money and power, which itself was an environmental drawback.

'With what we've been doing over the last 30 years there have been no signs whatsoever of damage to the environment and no substantiated or provable reports of illness attributable to it, so why rock the boat and spend a huge amount of money?'

The Green Paper suggests that a plant treating sewage up to a tertiary level could cost £50m, but the cost includes a figure of £10m for land reclamation.

'As far as I'm concerned, leave it as it is, because it's a nice to have, not a need to have.'

He condemned SAS, which he said had no direct experience of the local tidal system.

The Green Paper sets out the natural marine process that is currently used. Guernsey pumps its sewage from an outfall that stretches one mile out from Belle Greve.

The solids are reduced to a size less than 6mm in diameter prior to discharge. Because it is less saline and generally warmer than the sea, after discharge from the outfall, the sewage plume rises towards the upper layers of the sea.

'The depth of water, wave action and swift tidal currents in the Little Russel provide massive dilution and sufficient oxygen for the organic matter to biodegrade naturally,' the report says.

'Harmful bacteria and viruses in well-diluted sewage are rendered harmless by the combination of temperature, salinity and sunlight.'