Why does Guernsey dump raw sewage into the sea?

Every day, litres of raw untreated sewage are sent into the ocean next to Soldier's Bay in Guernsey.

But drone footage filmed by the BBC has revealed that the waste is being pumped into the sea too close to the shore, after the issue was raised by Deputy Andy Cameron, an open water swimmer, in the States in April.

Guernsey Water could not confirm how long the pipe, which serves 75 homes at Fort George, had not been working properly and said teams would be on site at the end of this week to attempt a repair.

Chairman Simon Thornton said connecting the outfall to the rest of the network would be too expensive to justify for billpayers.

Cameron said: "We've got an increased number of open water swimming groups in Guernsey now.

"I think we need to either look at resolving the problem or at least putting some sort of signage or warning up to open water swimmers to discourage them from swimming around the area."

Guernsey's Environmental Health said it was in the process of testing the water around Soldier's Bay to assess whether signage was needed.

Prof Bing Guo, of the University of Surrey, warned that sewage being discharged so close to the shore could have an adverse impact on swimmers and make people sick.

One swimmer told the BBC he unknowingly went through the sewage: "When swimming between Soldier's Bay and Ozanne Steps, before I could do anything about it, I was swimming through a patch of water that quite obviously had raw sewage.

"The smell was strong and there were things floating. I got a stomach sickness over the next few of days."

On an average day, about 15 million litres of sewage is pumped into the sea off the island, according to Guernsey Water, which maintains the island's sewage network.

There are only two pipes that take the sewage into the sea, the utility firms says - the majority is pumped off the east coast through the Belle Greve outfall and the rest goes through the pipe at Soldier's Bay.

The Belle Greve outfall takes sewage 2km (about 1.2 miles) away from the Guernsey coastline.

Non-biodegradable waste that measures more than 6mm (0.24in) in diameter is screened out before it is sent through the pipe at Belle Greve.

Once the waste there has gone out to sea, Guernsey Water said it was washed away by the "fast-flowing waters of the Little Russel".

On its website, Guernsey Water states: "Ultra-violet rays of the sun and the natural wave action together with massive dilution provide the current bacteriological breakdown, such that any effects from the outfall are virtually eliminated once more than 20 to 30 metres away."

A former environment minister, Deputy David De Lisle, has been a long-term critic of Guernsey's practice of sending its sewage to sea.

"It's disgusting. It makes Guernsey look like a dirty, polluting island. Guernsey is not carrying out its environmental responsibilities.

"It's a small island, easily governed and yet we still haven't dealt with this."

Guernsey Water's Thornton said making changes to sewage services was not part of the utility firm's current priorities.

He added the current way of dealing with the island's sewage had been recommended by experts.

In 2011, those experts, from Intertek Meteoc, carried out a study around the Belle Greve outfall and judged it was "sufficient to satisfy UK standards".

It also said: "Bathing waters and shellfish harvesting areas are not predicted to be significantly impacted by the Belle Greve outfall."

Simply put, cost.

In 2016, after pressure from De Lisle, Guernsey Water looked at what could be done about the Soldier's Bay outfall.

The utility firm's chief executive Steve Langlois said this week that the utility firm had looked at the time at what could be done about the issue of raw sewage going into the sea.

He said a "solids screening system" was subsequently installed back in 2017.

Cameron has suggested a public-private partnership to connect the homes to the network at Fort George.

He said the area was "pretty much the the wealthiest catchment area going," adding "so maybe we could tap into" that.

But Guernsey Water said connecting the properties to the sewage network would be very expensive, with some officials speculating it could cost as much as £4m.

Most of the homes in Fort George are part of the open market, which usually means the houses are of a higher value than the local market.

Open market homes can be bought by anyone, while local market homes are only available to those with a valid permit.

Thirteen of Guernsey's beaches have their water quality monitored regularly by Environmental Health.

Havelet Bay, which is north of Soldier's Bay, was rated as excellent in September last year while Fermain, which is south of the outfall, was also rated excellent.

Despite this, swimmers at the bathing pools said it made them reluctant to swim near the Soldier's Bay outfall, which lies to the south.

Harry, who swims there every day, said "it was pretty disgusting and not brilliant to see so close to where people are swimming".

Harriet, who was having a coffee at the pools, said she was "quite shocked" the Soldier's Bay outfall existed.

While Joanna Hemans, who was visiting the sauna across the road, said while she was aware sewage was pumped out to sea in Guernsey she "didn't realise it was at bay level".

"It's a beautiful area, knowing there is sewage just around the corner of the bay does sadden me a bit.

"I won't be going under the water if I go outside the bathing pools and I'll definitely be having a shower after swims."

Environmental Health said: "The water at Soldier's Bay is not routinely tested like other bays because of the difficulty of accessing the bay on foot and the health and safety risks that this presents.

"With Guernsey Harbours we've arranged to access the area via boat to take samples, but this isn't feasible as part of our routine sampling practice.

"We will assess the sampling results when they are available so that we have a better understanding of the risk that may be posed."

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