Just four deputies accept the big Poop bay swim challenge
Friday 3rd February 2012, 11:30AM GMT.
Deputy Robert Sillars is one of four deputies who have accepted Philip Cox’s challenge. He said he was confident that tidal currents would break up sewage. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 1220277)
JUST four deputies have so far agreed to dive into Belle Greve Bay to prove it is clean enough to swim in.
Islander Philip Cox challenged politicians to take a dip in the bay because he was concerned about the way the island treats its sewage.
Deputies Robert Sillars, Andrew Le Lievre, Mike Collins and Barry Paint have accepted.
The task has been called Politicians Outsmart Outfall Protesters, or Poop, by Mr Cox.
The 41-year-old accountant said he wanted to highlight the issue.
- To read Guernsey Press stories in full click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.
Saturday 26 May
- Laid-off staff see jobs re-advertised next day
- The Week - Roots Manuva interview
- Royal celebrations of yesteryear
- The Week - Jubilee Food
- Sport - Angus Mackay takes Gib job
Campaigns
Voice For Victims
Voice for Victims is a campaign aimed at promoting the rights of those affected by child sexual abuse.
This is Guernsey
Guernsey Press
Doesn’t this accountant have better things to be doing especially at this time of the accounting year?
Report abuse
What a joke!
‘Look guys, we can swim in it, therefore its fine for the environment and acceptable’
Report abuse
Shades of Selwyn-Gummer, here…
Will Mr Cox be taking a dip himself?
Report abuse
I believe Mr Cox has quite clearly stated that he would not swim in it. A marvellous, well-informed contribution. Next.
Report abuse
I’d be more concerned about how cold it is at the moment!
Report abuse
An excellent idea and excellent challenge.
Report abuse
Surely this story should read
“4 deputies happy to swim in raw untreated sewage”
Report abuse
Please excuse me for making this point again. But has anyone looked for superbugs in the sea?
Superbugs are emerging and colonising the environment from an untreated sewage outfall from the Chile research station in antartica.
“BACTERIA that can resist nearly all antibiotics have been found in Antarctic seawater.
Björn Olsen of Uppsala University in Sweden and colleagues took seawater samples between 10 and 300 metres away from Chile’s Antarctic research stations, Bernardo O’Higgins, Arturo Prat and Fildes Bay.A quarter of the samples of Escherichia coli bacteria carried genes that made an enzyme called ESBL, which can destroy penicillin, cephalosporins and related antibiotics.
Bacteria with these genes can be even more dangerous than the better known superbug MRSA. That’s because the genes sit on a mobile chunk of DNA that can be acquired by many species of bacteria, increasing the incidence of drug-resistant infections such as the E. coli outbreak last year in Germany.”
Report abuse
Sounds like the basis for a bloody good film
Report abuse
Correction, sounds like the plot of a bloody awful film.
Report abuse
What hero’s,swimming amoung those “dead sailors”,hope their innoculations are up to date!
Report abuse
They’ve got a big job on their hands persuading people it’s safe.
Report abuse
judging by the responses to the SAS article, I would say that most people believe that it is safe.
maybe not perfect or ideal, but safe.
it’s not as if we have lots of people getting ill after swimming is it?
Report abuse
Swimming Terry?
It appears most Deputies voted with their feet.
Report abuse
Oh dear Hobbes! You will slip off your pedestal – why can men never resist the scatalogical?
Report abuse
Poos! rorsy.
Report abuse
myself and my family has used this beach for over 50 years
it is cleaner now than it used to be
i take my grandchildren there to play and to swim .
we have never had any illness for using the beach.
At low tide it is a haven for young children to play on with the many rock pools
the views are simply breathtaking .sitting on the beach watching the boats go up and down the Russel is lovely.
Report abuse
Would PB Falla swim in it?
Report abuse
No
Report abuse
Are you serious
I’v often been fishing and scallop diving form around the outfall pipe and on the beach, it bloney stinks. Large chunks of human waste and (protective) plastics can almost always be seen floating in a brown seagull infested plume out to sea.
And thats not even mentioning when the sewage comes straight out onto the beach after heavy rainfall!
I think its clear to all deputies something needs to be done, and they need to nut-up and invest in the island, but they would rather do a small media stunt to avoid the issue.
Rant. Over.
Report abuse
Compare the amount coming out of a research station to what we chuck out. I’m going to contact this researcher.
Report abuse
What is wrong with you tight Guernsey people you don’t want to deal with you rubbish problim you want to send it to Jersey,you think it’s okay to dump your raw sewage into the sea all because you don’t want to pay for it.
Report abuse
Smug …….how about “raw untreated sewage happy to swim with 4 deputies”
Report abuse
Haha
Report abuse
Catch the floating voters eh..
Report abuse
Your menu choices: diluted Guernsey sewage or diluted French tritium. The one, organic and biodegradable by nature, the other, rarely found in nature, but discharged by the billions of tons at Cap de la Hague, and which remains radiocative for at least 15 years. Which would you choose? How disappointing would it be if Guernsey spent £70 Million Pounds on a new sewage treatment plant, permitting crystal clear discharges into Belle Greve Bay, only to discover that radiation presents a much greater threat to the marine environment than e coli ever did.
Not in the news at the moment, because we haven’t seen any surfers in radiation suits at Ferry terminals, but perhaps now might be an opportune moment to take a further look at that subject.
Report abuse
And where exactly is your supporting research to this theory DoG, credible reports have been made for local waste water providing sound evidence.
Im not saying your wrong, it would just be interesting to know as a proposed PhD research paper on local water quality is possibly in the pipeline.
Its pretty clear that before a decision can be made we need to work out what is actually happening?
Report abuse
Hi Steve,
In November 2010, a report appeared in Channel TV online about the nuclear reprocessing site at Cap de la Hague being given the go- ahead to increase the discharge of radioactive tritium. This is the article reproduced in full:
“The French government has given the go-ahead to Electricite de France to increase the amounts of radioactive tritium it discharges into the sea and the air at Flamanville on the Normandy coast. In future the two power generating nuclear reactors will be able to discharge another 20,000 billion becquerels of tritium per year. The Flamanville power station operates alongsite the site of the new European Pressurised reactor, which is due to start operating in 2014. Former Normandy Eurodeputy and long-time anti- nuclear campaigner Didier Anger called on France and EDF Flamanville to respect the discharges London Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, which was signed by France in 1998.
Known as the OSPAR convention the 1998 agreement specifies zero nuclear discharges into the air or the sea. Monsieur Anger has now told French newspapers that he is certain that true levels of pollution from Flamanville are at least 150,000 Gbq per year.
Thomas Houdre, director of the Caen division of the state nuclear watchdog ASN, told Agence France Presse that effects of radioactive tritium are ‘underestimated’ according to the majority of expert opinions.
Tritium is said to present a radiation hazard when inhaled, ingested via food, water, or absorbed through the skin but it remains dangerously radioactively for only fifteen or twenty years.
Other radioactive metals like plutonium, of which more than eighty tons are stored at the Cap de la Hague AREVA nuclear site further up the Norman coast, remain radioactive for millions of years. ”
Like Guernsey,but for clearly different reasons, the French have been looking at how the tidal flows in the Gulf of St Malo affect the dispersal of waste products. In 2005, a paper was published in esp sciences entitled:
“Hydrodynamic modelling of short-term dispersion in a macro-tidal sea, validation by high-resolution radionuclide tracer measurements”
EDF are relying upon dilution to mitigate the effects of the radioactive tritium, just as Guernsey is relying upon dilution to mitigate the effects on untreated sewage.
Bearing in mind that tritium is radioactive, with a half life of 15 or 20 years, and which is harmful if ingested in water, it would be good to know what effect it has on the marine environment around Guernsey. I mentioned tons rather than becqerels in my first post ( apologies), but it still seems a scary number to me.
I have no theory on this Steve, but it would be nice to see some new research data on the subject. The sewage debate should not be a distraction.
Report abuse
Will they really do it, or are they just going to go through the motions?
Report abuse
I bet they will Stool for time!
Report abuse
This just shows we need some new faeces in the States this spring!
Report abuse
Just to hear of the potential bravery of these four fine fellows,nearly brings a lump to my throat.
If they all swim close together, right by the outfall, do you think there’s a chance they could end up doing a ‘Congor’ ??
Report abuse