Devon beaches: Popular UK beaches hit with sewage alerts including Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton, and Beer after heavy rain

Today (Tuesday 3 September), Dawlish Town, Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton, Sidmouth Town, Beer and Seaton beaches all have been issued a sewage warning from the environmental charity. The warning reads: “Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.”

Surfers Against Sewage’s interactive map shows the water quality of popular beaches and swimming spots. The pollution warnings at popular beaches in Devon comes after Exmouth beach has been shut and the red flag raised due to poor water quality.

The Environment Agency had issued advice against bathing at Exmouth on Monday (2 September) after pollution had been detected for the second time in three days. The no swim warning has since been lifted by the Environment Agency, but Surfers Against Sewage still has a sewage alert cross on the beach on its interactive map.

East Devon District Council leader Paul Arnott said he wants the government to "step in" and sort out the problems caused by water company's sewage spills. South West Water (SWW) apologised for the incident at Exmouth and said it was investigating what happened. A spokesperson for SWW said: "We are fully investigating what happened, but we are sorry that a pollution incident occurred. One pollution is one too many and we are doing everything we can to protect the environment as we work around the clock to complete a very complex work in Exmouth."

On the sewage alerts from Surfers Against Sewage, South West Water told NationalWorld that neither itself nor the Environment Agency has sewage alerts for any of the beaches across the region except for Budleigh Salterton where there has been a storm overflow activation in the last 12.5 hours. A statement from South West Water this week said: “We have had spills from our storm overflows over the weekend as a result of heavy rainfall. 

“Storm overflows are pressure relief valves built into our network that stop homes and businesses from flooding during periods of heavy rain. We are serious about tackling storm overflows and change of this scale takes time, ambition, and increased investment – we are working hard to actively reduce our use of storm overflows across the region as part of record level investment.”