Water nitrate levels to be assessed in Scrutiny Hearing

Thursday 26 January 2017

A Public Hearing with the Environment Minister Steve Luce is to be held today to assess whether the recently published Water Management Plan (WMP) is sufficient for tackling Jersey’s nitrate problems.

Under a 1972 law, 50mg of nitrates are permitted per litre of mains water, but an exemption was made for Jersey Water by Deputy Luce, now allowing up to 65mg.

The Hearing also comes following a deeply critical report from environmental campaign group Save Our Shorelines Jersey (SOSJ) published last week, which claimed that the Island was an “environmental time bomb” after multiple warnings from the group had been ignored by both the government and contractors over the years.

SOSJ say that the spike in sea lettuce is due to contaminated water with “illegally high nitrate levels” – a result of agricultural fertilisers – passing through Bellozane Sewage Treatment Works at a rate of 18 million gallons per day.

Pictured: The build-up of sea lettuce on St Aubin's Bay.

As a result, SOSJ had advocated ploughing furrows into the beach to dislodge the unsightly weed before it takes root but said that the States decided not to heed the advice:

“Instead we see a recurring annual cycle where vast amounts of sea lettuce bloom throughout the summer and autumn, blighting what was once a beautiful and popular Bay for locals, tourists and businesses,” the report said. 

It also claimed that pollution in Jersey’s waters had become so bad that oysters had to be cleansed for over 40 hours before being fit for consumption, whilst also revealing an instance where bacteria had been so dense in a testing of First Tower outflow that it couldn’t be counted.

But yesterday a jointly-issued response from the Department of the Environment and the Department for Infrastructure refuted SOSJ's report, claiming that it was full of, "inaccuracies."

This Thursday’s Scrutiny Panel forms part of the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Panel’s ongoing review of nitrate levels in Jersey’s water.

Pictured: Steve Luce, Minister for the Environment, who will face the Scrutiny panel regarding the WMP this Thursday.

Held in the States’ Blampied Room at14:00, it will engage expert advisors from SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency), with panel Chairman Deputy David Johnson, Vice-Chairman Deputy Tracey Vallois and Connétable Sadie Le Sueur-Rennard also in attendance.