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The investigation into whether pollution laws were breached when issues with the Bellozanne plant led under-treated sewage to flow into St Aubin’s Bay is still ongoing after 16 months – and shows no sign of wrapping up.
Concerns about the quality of water in the Bay saw ‘no swimming’ advice issued on Wednesday 14 June.
Testing of undiluted samples taken from around First Tower – the location of the Sewage Treatment Works outflow pipe – was revealed to be "poor" by EU Standards.
However, the advice was lifted on Saturday 17 June, with the Government stating that a bathing water sample taken from the area on Friday 16 June was "excellent".
At the time, Government officials said that the problem at the plant was caused by the warm weather and lack of rain, as well as insufficient "organic matter" flowing through the plant for the bacteria used in its chemical processes to function properly. This meant that the sewage was treated to a lower standard than usual.
Although the facility has been running as normal since the incident, a Regulation team has been formally investigating what happened under the Water Pollution (Jersey) Law 2000. Water pollution incidents can carry an unlimited fine.
Pictured: the Bay was closed to swimmers.
Sixteen months after the incident, the Government yesterday provided Express with a statement which said: "Regulation confirm that the investigation is still ongoing."
It is understood that the ongoing investigation into the St Aubin's Bay incident involves assessing the condition of the Sewage Treatment Works from both before and during the incident last June, as well as the the definition of pollution in the Water Pollution Law.
This statement is almost identical to one received in May – days after islanders were advised against swimming at Grève de Lecq when levels of E.coli over six times higher than the minimum threshold for "poor" water quality were discovered during a routine test.
While this issue was resolved and levels returned to normal, islanders remain alert and some have shared videos and images on social media of what appear to be murky substances flowing into St Aubin's Bay.
Pictured: islanders continue to share videos of treated sewage flowing into the Bay, asking if it is safe.
However, authorities maintain that the sewage treatment works are currently operating effectively producing a high-quality treated effluent.
Flows join a stream before discharging into St Aubin's Bay at the outfall at First Tower. When mixing with saline waters, they can change colour – which is why it may have a brown colour – but the effluent quality is high, officials assured.
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