Water Quality Awards
- For recent bathing water quality results at your local beach visit the Southern Water Interactive bathing water quality results pages.
- Minutes of the Water Quality Subgroup meetings can be viewed on our meetings pages.
The Solent Water Quality Award Scheme was launched in 1992 to provide a simple and readily understood indicator of satisfactory water quality at bathing beaches and, where feasible, in recreational waters around the Solent. The Award is given to beaches that pass the mandatory standard of the European Bathing Water Directive.
The scheme supplements the various beach and resort award schemes, including the Blue Flag, which are administered by ENCAMS, and which all deal with many other criteria in addition to water quality. The scheme is administered by the Solent Forum on behalf of the Solent Water Quality Association. All beaches regularly used for bathing, non-designated as well as designated, are eligible for an award under the scheme. Water regularly used for recreational activities involving immersion such as water skiing, boardsailing etc. may also be included where the applying authority can show that the sampling results presented are representative of the whole area for which the application is made.
The basis of the standard used for assessing water quality is the EC Bathing Water Directive, namely the mandatory bacterial parameters given in the 1979 Directive ie. total coliforms (10,000/100ml) and faecal coliforms (2,000/100ml). We will introduce the new standards within the revised Directive in due course. In addition to compliance with the mandatory bacterial parameters of the Directive, the water must not contain any gross pollution by faeces or other sewage related macro-waste, or persistent occurrence of oil or tar or of a significant smell.
Solent Water Quality Awards - Proposals for Award Changes 2010 – 2012
The Solent Water Quality Group secretariat and chairman propose making some changes to the Solent Water Quality Awards. These proposals have been put to the recipients of the 2009 Solent Water Quality Awards, and approval amongst the Water Quality Group is sought. It is hoped that any changes can be launched at a Water Quality Conference held between March and September 2010.
The main reason for a change is because the new Bathing Water Directive Revision will require more stringent standards by 2015. It will have four standards - Poor, Sufficient, Good and Excellent. The current Bathing Water Directive has two standards, Mandatory (slightly lower than Sufficient) and Guideline (similar to Good). To date the Solent Water Quality Awards has measured applications on the Mandatory standard.
We propose that in 2010 the awards remain the same, and that in 2011 the awards are judged against the higher Bathing Water Directive standard of “Guideline” to prepare for the new revisions in 2015. In 2012 we will then propose switching to the new system and to achieving Good status. It could be possible to have a two tier system eventually where you may achieve Good or Excellent standard. We also propose that the Environment Agency and Southern Water logos are incorporated onto the award plaque to show their work in supporting increased standards and designing some one off interpretation boards to explain the Water Quality Awards and proposed changes to the public.
