By David Hadley and Matthew Hatchwell
Photos and graphics by Ken Pugh
To our shame, the UK ranks consistently as one of the worst European countries for coastal water quality. Not a single stretch of river in England or Northern Ireland is in good overall health; just 14% achieve good ecological health.
According to the Environment Agency based on data received from water companies, in 2023 there were a total of 464,056 raw sewage discharges into English rivers, waterways and seas. This equates to 1,271 sewage spills per day, or nearly 10,000 hours of spills a day. Since these figures are based on self-reporting by water companies, there is a strong suspicion that the true ones are even higher.
Sadly Faversham and its waterways are no exception to this sorry state of affairs. In May this year, a group of local volunteer citizen scientists from Faversham and outlying villages (Faversham Water Quality Group FAVWAT) began testing for E. coli bacteria in Faversham Creek. This was in addition to their continuing work monitoring levels of phosphates and nitrates, which are a threat to the ecology of the Creek and Swale Estuary but not directly to public health.
E.coli is a bacterium found commonly in the guts of warm- blooded animals including humans. Most E. coli strains are harmless – indeed they are beneficial as long as they’re inside our bodies – but some are pathogenic and can cause serious food poisoning if ingested. The E. coli testing tool used by FavWat is made by Aquagenx, an industry standard test for E.coli that does not require a laboratory to analyse water samples.
In addition to the partially treated sewage that is discharged legally into the Creek every day by the Faversham Wastewater Treatment Works, there are several Combined Sewer Overflows in the town that are designed to avoid overwhelming the sewage works by channelling rainwater and sewage into the Creek during heavy rainfall.
FavWat collected water samples from the Creek on a rising tide just before high water at Nagden (point X on the map, well below the sewage works) and at the top of the Creek next to TS Hazard on Town Quay (point Y).
Pollution by E. coli is measured in terms of CFU (Colony-Forming Units) per 100 millilitres of water. The E. coli levels near TS Hazard compared to Nagden in 2024 monitoring results from Faversham Creek were as follows:
The consistently high levels of over 10,000 CFU/100ml at the head of the Creek are off the Aquagenx test scale – shockingly high and, without a doubt, hazardous to public health. For comparison, if coastal bathing water reaches a level of 500 CFU/100ml, it is designated ‘poor quality’. At the Olympics this year, levels of 1,000 CFU/100ml led to the postponement of the triathlon swim in the Seine. At the Oxford- Cambridge boat race on the Thames this year, crews were ordered not to throw the cox in the water because of a level of 2869 CFU/100ml.
Where does this alarming level of E. coli in Faversham Creek come from?
The background level of 1,360 CFU/100ml in the water flowing into the Creek from the Swale Estuary is of concern in its own right. Rather than the tide taking the pollution away, it keeps bringing it back.
The rest of the 10,000+ CFU/100ml comes from the sewage system, from “black water” discharged from residential boats, from seepage from manure spread on fields adjacent to the Creek, from dogs, and from wildfowl on Stonebridge Pond. More sophisticated testing is needed to distinguish the relative contribution of animal and human waste but it is hard to imagine, given the extraordinary scale of it, that the major component of this increase is other than from sewage.
We know from Environment Agency data that the sewage works still legally deposits high levels of E. coli in its partially treated effluent – 330,000 CFU/100ml at the last count – but
we suspect that the other major contributors are untreated spills from the Combined Sewer Overflows.
There is a convincing body of evidence that CSOs – originally designed to manage high levels of run- off during rainstorms – are routinely and illegally used by water companies as a substitute for improving their inadequately maintained infrastructure. Figures provided to the Environment Agency by the water companies are under scrutiny and evidence is growing that companies are substantially underreporting the number of spills.
A 2022 House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee report on water quality contained evidence demonstrating that:
Spills from CSOs were likely to be under reported by the water companies by a factor of ten;
“Untreated sewage discharged from storm overflows during dry weather was likely to be the main source of microplastics in river sediment”; and that:
“Sewage treatment works and the rivers they discharge into were becoming breeding grounds for antimicrobial resistance”.
Even using industry supplied figures, spills into the Swale have doubled since 2019 with increases every year apart from 2022 which was one of the driest years on record. Using these dubious figures, published only annually, there is still, on average, more than one spill a week into Faversham Creek. The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee summarises: “The sewerage system is overloaded and unable to cope with the increasing pressures of housing development, the impact of heavier rainfall, and a profusion of plastic and other non-biodegradable waste clogging up the system. Successive governments, water companies and regulators have grown complacent and seem resigned to maintaining pre-Victorian practices of dumping sewage in rivers.”
To help reduce the too frequent spills, Southern Water promised to increase the size of the storm tanks at the Faversham works. These tanks are intended to hold overflow temporarily and then pump it back into the works for treatment later.
An Environmental Information Request to Southern Water gave the volume of the existing tanks as 2,080 cubic metres. They have still to deliver the promised increase but report it will add 200 cubic metres. The dry flow permit for the sewage works is 290 cubic metres an hour. An industry insider tells us that sewage works are designed to cope with six times dry flow in storm conditions, i.e. 1,740 cubic meters an hour in Faversham’s case. FavWat’s calculation suggests that the 10% volume increase will provide an extra 15 minutes’ storage capacity in such conditions before a spill.
Levels of E. coli in the Westbrook chalk stream are also high, at 1,360 CFU/100ml, possibly as the result of sewer misconnections from the houses along the stream, a worrying sign for the health of a chalk stream and another contributor to the pollution of the Creek. Southern Water has been alerted to this potential problem but has not responded.
The results of water quality monitoring by FavWat have triggered the creation of a working group on water pollution by Faversham Town Council. FavWat will continue regularly monitoring and reporting on the levels of E. coli, phosphates and nitrates in the Creek and the streams that feed into it. Its next step is to raise £1,000+ to buy a sophisticated oxygen meter to provide instant spot readings of the overall ecological health of the water along the Creek, streams and Swale estuary, supplementing the readings for individual pollutants.
FavWat is also working with other groups in the area to address water pollution problems in the Thames Estuary as a whole.
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