Port Soif is the best for water quality this year

The west coast beach was the only Bailiwick swimming spot to score excellent on every check between May and September.

Just over a dozen beaches are tested in line with the EU bathing water quality standards for E. coli and intestinal enterococci.

To get an excellent rating, a beach needs to have less than 250 E. coli per 100ml and less than 100 intestinal enterococci per 100ml.

Nineteen water samples were taken from Port Soif over the summer, and it never had more than 14 E. coli or four intestinal enterococci.

The beach also enjoys a four-year average rating of excellent.

Nearby Cobo also scored well, with 17 excellent ratings and two good ratings. But for comparison, more than 300 E. coli were recorded on the occasion of the two good ratings.

E. coli is found in the gut and faeces of many animals and can cause gastric illnesses.

Further up the west coast, Ladies Bay was given 18 excellent ratings and one good, the same as Fermain Bay.

Grandes Rocques, L’Eree and Pembroke all scored excellent ratings, apart from one poor result. There was no clear trend for poor ratings at the beaches.

At the other end of scale, even beaches with more mixed results still got some excellent ratings over the year.

Portelet was the only beach to get three poor ratings, with a peak of 1,800 E. coli in one sample. The rest of its ratings were excellent.

Bordeaux scored two poor ratings and two good ratings, while the rest were excellent.

The tests only produce a snapshot of conditions and water quality conditions, which can change even over the course of a day.

Water quality is most often adversely affected by heavy rainfall as surface water run-off from fields and roads on higher ground enters streams and storm drains which run on to beaches.