Leading councillor defends Rhyl’s water quality after being named one of UK’s most polluted

Rhyl’s sea water quality has been described as ‘sufficient’ by a leading Denbighshire’s councillor, despite a survey listing the town’s coast as one of the most polluted in the UK.

Cabinet member for the environment Barry Mellor said headlines on sewage were damaging to Rhyl’s reputation as a tourist resort and claimed measures were in place to manage pollution.

Speaking at a Denbighshire County Council meeting, Cllr Mellor also said the council had put out signs warning swimmers when sewage levels are high.

His comments follow the ‘Top of the Poops’ website listing Rhyl in its top ten worst areas suffering pollution in rivers, canals, and coastal areas.

The website lists data collected from 2021 from the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

The issue was raised by Cllr Mark Young, who asked Cllr Mellor what was being done about the sewage problems.

Cllr Mellor said: “It is true that Rhyl can be impacted by storm overflows in very wet weather. The sewers are designed to overflow to protect property, and this can result in elevated bacteria levels in bathing water in Rhyl.

“The assessment in the new report counts all storm sewage spills that discharge into the Clwyd catchment and eventually flow into Rhyl; however, spills higher up the catchment have less impact on Rhyl due to bacteria decaying as they travel.”

He added: “Most of the spills in this assessment were higher up the catchment where the impact on Rhyl beach is very minor.

“Despite this headline, the bathing water quality status of Rhyl is classed as sufficient, rather than poor.”

Cllr Mellor said ultra-violet disinfection processes were being used to keep water clean and added that additional storm water storage methods were also helping.

He said: “The council has a good working relationship with Natural Resources Wales regarding water quality.

“The NRW inform our public protection team when there are any sewage discharge incidents, and our team communicate with the harbour master and Denbighshire Leisure Ltd to ensure that suitable signage is displayed during such conditions to warn the general public of poor quality.”

The data on sewage spills revealed that, in just one year, waterways in Wales and England had sewage pumped into them for at least 3.4m hours.

The data from the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales also revealed rivers across England and Wales had sewage pumped into them on over 2,500 separate occasions.

By Richard Evans – Local Democracy Reporter