Miss England surfer, 24, says she can't train for the world championships because sewage was dumped in the sea off the Cornish coast
Miss England has revealed she's been forced to halt training for the Miss World championships after raw sewage was dumped in the sea near her Cornish hometown.
Milla Magee, 24, who is also a lifeguard and keen surfer, had been preparing off the coast of Newquay ahead of flying to India on Wednesday to represent England at the international pageant.
But now, the beauty queen says she's unable to keep up her fitness regime due to repeated sewage spills in the water – branding the situation 'a public health crisis'.
The shocking reality has pushed the environmental campaigner to speak out against pollution on Britain's beaches, saying it's time for urgent action.
'As Miss England, a surfer, and founder of the GoFarwithCPR campaign, I've seen first-hand how powerful the ocean can be – not just for fitness, but for mental health and community,' Ms Magee said.
'That's why it's devastating to see Cornwall's waters polluted with sewage.
'Lately, many of us have had to stay out of the sea because it's simply not safe, and that's more than just a missed surf – it's a public health crisis.
But now, the beauty queen says she's unable to keep up her fitness regime due to repeated sewage spills in the water – branding the situation 'a public health crisis'
'As we bid farewell to winter, the days start getting longer, the sun is shining, we want to enjoy our beaches. However, this rise in pollution just simply isn't safe.'
The Cornish campaigner has joined forces with Surfers Against Sewage – a UK charity calling for an end to sewage discharges in bathing waters by 2030.
Determined to make a difference, Ms Magee is now urging the public to step up and protect the coastlines.
'We need urgent action to protect our coastlines and keep the ocean a place of healing, not harm,' she said.
'For the people who don't live by the sea and understand these issues, for the children who want to enjoy nature's playground, and for the locals who simply just want to enjoy their home.
'Get involved with organisations like Surfers Against Sewage or simple beach cleans, is such a small act for an even bigger effect.'
The 24-year-old's warning comes as new figures reveal just how widespread the problem has become.
Last year, raw sewage was dumped into England's waters for more than 3.6 million hours – up from 1.75 million in 2022 and 2.5 million in 2021.
The worst-hit areas included Salcombe and Chittlehamholt in Devon and Duloe in Cornwall – where sewage spills were occurring nearly every single day.
The north and south-west of England have also been affected, with waterways like the Croal and Irwell rivers in Greater Manchester, and the Avon in Bristol, recording high pollution levels.
While the Environment Agency says the number of individual spills has decreased, the average duration of each incident has gone up.
Just 16 per cent of England's surface waters were rated as having 'good' ecological status in 2023, including 14 per cent of rivers and lakes and just 45 per cent of coastal waters.
In stark contrast, 66 per cent of Scotland's waters were classed as 'good', with Wales and Northern Ireland also outperforming England.
Southern Water – long criticised over its environmental record – revealed plans in October to raise bills more than any other UK water company over the next five years.
In 2019, three employees were convicted of blocking Environment Agency investigators during a probe into sewage discharges – though none were fined.
Two years later, the company was hit with a record-breaking £90 million fine after admitting to thousands of illegal discharges over a five-year period.
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BBC News
4 days ago
- BBC News
Warning over 'dirty secret' of toxic chemicals on farmers fields
Successive governments have failed to deal with the threat posed by spreading sewage sludge containing toxic chemicals on farmers' fields, a former chair of the Environment Agency has told the 3.5 million tonnes of sludge – the solid waste produced from human sewage at treatment plants - is put on fields every year as cheap campaigners have long warned about a lack of regulation and that sludge could be contaminated with cancer-linked chemicals, microplastics, and other industrial Howard Boyd, who led the EA from 2016 to 2022, says the agency had been aware since 2017 that the sludge can be contaminated with substances, including 'forever chemicals'. "Forever chemicals" or PFAS are a group of synthetic chemicals which come from things like non-stick saucepans. They don't degrade quickly in nature and have been linked to seen by BBC News suggest the water industry is now increasingly concerned that farmers could stop accepting the sludge to spread and that water firms have been lobbying regulators and making contingency plans in case rules Howard Boyd says efforts to update rules, which date back to 1989, to include new contaminants were "continually frustrated by the lack of ministerial appetite to deal with this issue." In a public letter signed by more than 20 others she called on the current Environment Minister Steve Reed, to act Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told the BBC regulations around sludge spreading are being looked at. The water companies trade body Water UK told the BBC they were aware of the concerns but that no legal standards for contaminants had been set by the government. Unlike the cleaned water that is discharged from wastewater treatment plants, the sewage sludge, or biosolid as the industry calls it, is considered "exempted waste".That means the treatment focuses mainly on killing bacteria and testing for heavy metals in the is no routine testing for chemicals, including "forever chemicals", which have been developed over the last three decades and are getting into the sewage network from both from domestic and industrial users."I think the big concern is because these substances (forever chemicals) are so persistent they'll stay around in the soil for hundreds, if not thousands of years," says Alistair Boxall, professor of environmental science at York University."It may be in 10 years' time that we start understanding that these molecules are causing harm," he said. "Then we're going to be in a bit of a mess, because we'll be in a situation where we'll have soils in the UK that will have residues of these molecules in them, and at the moment we have no way of cleaning that up."In 2022, the US state of Maine became the first state to ban the spreading of sludge contaminated with "forever chemicals" after high levels were found in water, soil and crops. Reports and emails shown to the BBC by Greenpeace's Unearthed investigation unit and obtained using Freedom of Information Act requests, reveal the water industry is acutely aware that attitudes are changing and is both lobbying government and making contingency companies are concerned on two fronts: that general rules regarding the spreading of sludge on land (so called Farming Rules for Water) may soon be tightened due to fears that it's polluting watercourses and that farmers' concerns about the chemicals in the sludge might make them unwilling to put it on their water industry has already commissioned reports looking at what might happen if the spreading is of them predicts that the "most likely" scenario is a shortfall of about three million hectares in land needed to spread the sludge. The water industry says that would lead to them either incinerating it or putting it into landfill. Both options would bring extra costs that would be passed on to billpayers."This investigation is yet more proof that we can't trust the privatised water companies to deal with waste responsibly," Reshima Sharma from Greenpeace said."So long as they can get away with it, they will just pass any problems on to our countryside and pocket the money they should be investing in solutions." In 2017 a report commissioned by the Environment Agency found that sludge contained potentially harmful substances, including microplastics and "forever chemicals", at levels that "may present a risk to human health" and may create soil that is "unsuitable for agriculture".It said that "perhaps the biggest risk to the landbank" is from the spreading of physical contaminants such as microplastics into agricultural soil. The report also said it had heard evidence from EA staff indicating that some companies may be using wastewater treatment plants to "mask disposal of individual high risk waste streams not suitable for land spreading"."EA colleagues were continually frustrated by the lack of ministerial appetite to deal with this issue," Ms Howard Boyd, who was chair of the regulator at the time, told the BBC in an email. "EA proposals since 2020 to reform the regulations were treated with a lack of urgency, hampered by delays in passing requests up to the relevant ministers for decision-making, and a consistent failure by successive secretaries of state to take the matter seriously."The letter Ms Howard Boyd has signed jointly signed was organised by campaign group Fighting Dirty. It calls the contents of the sewage sludge a "dirty secret" and demands that Environment Secretary Steve Reed take action. Sewage sludge is cheaper than other fertilisers, and can sometimes be free, though farmers may have to spread it Lewis-Thompson tells me it has "the smell of death"."It lingers in the air for somewhere around two to three weeks," she tells me when I go to visit in her home on Dartmoor in the south-west of gathered together a group of neighbours who've all had direct experience of sewage sludge being spread near their properties. Before we start recording there's a long discussion about whether they should speak out for fear of upsetting nearby farmers and the contractors who spread the sludge, who are often of their concerns are about the smell and about potential contamination of their water sources. One young woman leaves in tears saying it had made her sick."The fact it's spread for free ought to raise a few eyebrows," Richard Smallwood, a local beef and sheep farmer who doesn't use sewage sludge, tells me."If we're starting to produce food on grassland and arable land which is filled up to the ear holes with PFAS compounds and nano and micro-plastics that find their way into the food chain I think my job's over before I begin." With the alternatives to sewage sludge disposal costly, there's broad agreement that the recycling of sludge into fertiliser has to be made to work."In principle, I think using properly treated human sewage to spread on the land, put it back into the ground for growing food in the UK, that's the right thing to do," Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the cook, writer and broadcaster, tells me at his small farm and café in east Devon. He's also signed the protest letter to the environment minister."We know it's happening. Our farmers are rightly worried. We've got to take action. Government's got to take action," Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall says."That means regulations are not voluntary regulations or guidelines, [they should be] legally enforceable regulations that stop these pollutants getting into the sewage and onto our land."Despite the concerns there are still plenty of farmers who see the sludge as a cheap way to fertilise their Oliver is on the National Farmers Union Crops Board. He says he applies about 800 tonnes of sewage sludge every year to fields where he grows maize destined for animal water company provides the sludge for free and Mr Oliver says he's careful how much he uses and trusts the company to make sure it doesn't have chemical contamination."If we can be sensible with how it's used and spread on the land, it can be positive for farmers and for the water companies," he says."I'm doing it because it's adding value. It's improving our organic matter. It's benefitting the crop that I'm growing, and it's reducing my spend on bagged fertilisers." The Department for Environment Fisheries and Agriculture did not contest anything the former chair of the EA Ms Howard Boyd told the BBC."We need to see the safe and sustainable use of sludge in agriculture to help clean up our waterways," a spokesperson said."The Independent Water Commission will explore a range of issues, including the regulatory framework for sludge spreading, and we continue to work closely with the Environment Agency, water companies and farmers in this area."Water UK represents the water companies of England and Wales, said: "Although there are some concerns that some bioresources may contain contaminants, such as microplastics and forever chemicals (PFAS), there are no legal standards for them and, in some cases, no agreed assessment techniques.""Any standards and techniques are a matter for the government and the regulator and need to be based on firm evidence and detailed scientific research."
The Herald Scotland
06-06-2025
- The Herald Scotland
After Portobello beach water quality scare, why swimmers keep coming
But standing next to the sign towards the west end of Portobello beach promenade, Charlie Allanson-Oddy points out the small print in a sign just below the electronic notice. 'Advice against bathing,' it says, 'was issued on 37 days during the 2024 bathing season.' 'But that bathing season,' he observes, 'from June to September is only about 100 days, so that 37 is over a third.' Allanson-Oddy is not a wild swimmer but a surfer, a member of Surfers Against Sewage, and also the founder of a citizen science group that has been testing the water for themselves over the past two years. He guides me to the spot at which they take their samples is where the waters of the Figgate Burn spill onto the beach, trickling seductively over the sands and into the sea. 'There's a combined sewage overflow (CSO) just a few hundred metres up the burn,' he says, as he dips a metal flask, on the end of a stick into the stream. A CSO is a point in the system where, when heavy rain washes in off streets and drains, the contents of the sewer is released to prevent backing up into homes. 'In theory this test," he observes, "should be fine since there has been no rain for a long time. But what we have learned from our testing is that there are consistently high levels of E. coli in the Figgate burn. What that actually means about swimming in the sea here, I'm not sure, but I wouldn't want to swim in or around the area. I would swim further up the beach.' Porty Water Collective volunteers collected samples regularly between July 2023 and April 2024. 21 out of their 26 tests found unsafe levels of E. coli – over 400 per 1000mg of colony forming units (CFUs). The best journalism in Edinburgh – now for just £1 for 3 months. 'The last thing,' he says, 'we want to do is scare people, put them off. We're actually trying to do the opposite and make the water cleaner so more of us can get in and enjoy it. It lifts the spirits and does all sorts of wonderful things for us – even just being by the sea.' 'Why can't we have real-time monitoring of water quality?' he adds. 'Or something that says, 'It's been raining, don't go in.' Also bathing season is so short. People are in all seasons of the year. Some of the worst rains come outside of the season, and people are in there.' Last year was not the best year at Porty, as locals affectionately call our beach. Sampling, as part of SEPA's weekly testing according to their data, revealed, in early July, an E coli level of 1200 CFU at the east end of the beach. The July sample – though notably not the worst in the year - triggered a dramatic response. Notices were put up on the beach warning people not to swim. 'Water pollution incident,' the sign said. 'Please avoid bathing or paddling until further notice.' The thrumming beach of Scotland's busy capital, home to a wild swimming community, whose Facebook group, The Wild Ones, with over 7000 members, and a magnet for on the kind of sunny weekends of the past May, was closed briefly to dippers. Allanson-Oddy recalls: 'They never really found out what it was. And people were left feeling like this was some version of Jaws, is it really safe to get back in the water again? I don't remember another event like that when suddenly people were being told don't go into the water.' Charlie Allanson-Oddy tests the Figgate Burn (Image: Herald&Times_GordonTerris) A report was issued by SEPA which suggested that the contamination could have been dog or gull poo, and was probably not sewage. Vicki White, SEPA Senior Manager in Environmental Performance reassured: 'The fact that a follow-up sample taken on Thursday 11th July showed water quality was already back to normal indicates this was a short-lived event that had no lasting impact. 'Microbial source tracking can be very helpful in identifying a source, but in this case our analysis of this one sample has not been able to identify one. However, these results - combined with the fact our officers found no issues when we checked Scottish Water assets in the area - does indicate that this was not a sewage related incident." But this was not the only reading in the year that was shockingly high. Another followed much later in the season when on Monday, September 2, a sample at Portobello Central tested at 2600 CFU E Coli, almost twice as bad. In Scotland last year, only Fisherrow Sands saw a worse E coli reading than that 2600 at Portobello – a shocking 10,000 in July, and Portobello itself has not seen a reading this high since July 2017 when an 8,800 sample was taken. Charlie Allanson-Oddy overlooking Portobello beach by the Figgate Burn (Image: Herald&Times_GordonTerris) Jo Myles, a former daily swimmer, who started dipping during the pandemic during her recovery from breast cancer, and started up a vibrant swim group, tells me how the shock of those July signs last year made her cut back her swimming. 'I've known from years of swimming at Portobello that there was days when there was nasties. There were days when you just thought what the hell is that! But it was the fact that they did put up an official warning that has massively set back my swimming weekly routine because it went from feeling like I was doing something healthy to potentially doing something unhealthy. The fact that it was verified that was the gamechanger.' Till then, she says, she felt blissfully unaware. 'We kind of knew, but it was oh well, ignorance is bliss – we were turning a bit of a blind eye. So when it went up and it was official it kind of put me off. I started going to the gym on a Friday.' Lately, however, she says she has been back in the water. 'Things have gone a bit quiet on the pollution side of things – when I went in last Friday, it was crystal clear and beautiful and that filled me with a lot of joy.' READ MORE: That Portobello beach doesn't have the very cleanest waters has been known for a while. Its two testing sites, Portobello Central and Portobello West, have long had a bathing waters classification of merely 'sufficient'. In terms of ratings it beats only Fisherrow Sands, Kinghorn Harbour Beach and Lower Largo, which are all poor. 'That sufficient it rates at is not that good,' says Allanson-Oddy. 'It's a bare minimum pass.' As the author of numerous books about wild swimming, including an upcoming anthology of literary writing on the subject, Take Me to the River, I have covered its rise in popularity, and I can say, with confidence Portobello is one of the birth places of contemporary wild swimming culture. Yet, since 2018 when I first started writing about it, and throughout all the years of swimmers making noise, its water quality has improved little. In terms of rating – with only one year of it ever being 'good'. On International Women's Day each year, crowds take a dook at Portobello BeachThis feeling I have of little progress is something Allanson-Oddy echoes. 'One of the things that I have been thinking about in our fourth year of testing here with Surfers against Sewage, and recently the Porty Water Collective, is that I am not aware of any particular differences that have been made by Scottish Water. It just seems the same. Their promise for 2024 was to increase the number of testing points on CSOs, because only 4% in Scotland were monitored. But even if this is happening, the question that always comes to mind is that that's just going to prove what we already know.' Last month the Labour MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh raised a question on sewage spills in parliament. Murray believes that two issues are driving the problem: 'population growth along with changes in climate'. 'There's more rain,' he says, 'more abruptly, and the system can get overwhelmed and what that means is that it overflows quite a lot and what you end up with is sewage washing out into the water.' That sewage is, however, mostly diluted by the large quantities of water from the downpour. One issue often raised is whether Scotland is better than England, with Scottish Water often praised for being publicly owned, rather than the multiple private companies that operate across England and Wales. Murray describes the situation in England where private water companies run the system and 'make profits' as "totally awful". But he also notes that, though publicly owned, Scotland's water system is not monitored very well. 'The only reason we really know that this is happening is because volunteers are finding loads of wet wipes and sanitary towels on the beach and obviously those are a proxy for the human sewage that is out there. So the issue is not just that we've got a problem in Scotland it's that we don't know the scale of the problem because we're not properly monitoring it.' Portobello beach on a busy day (Image: Gordon Terris)This criticism over monitoring is something that Scottish Water has already begun responding to. Through its Improving Urban Waters programme, a £500m package of additional investment to improve water quality through increased monitoring and reporting, and targeted infrastructure projects to significantly reducing sewer-related debris and spills. A Scottish Water Overflow map also publishes status of some of these CSOs. One of them is on the Figgate Burn, another at the east end of Portobello. But nevertheless, Murray says, 'I'm really frustrated by their quite lackadaisical attitude to things. It's all very much like nothing to see here, everything's fine.' It's one thing monitoring, however – the bigger question is how the system is actually improving. Scottish Water is, it says, currently developing a fully appraised strategic and costed plan for the sewerage and treatment system in Edinburgh and the wider Lothians. But the plan is likely not to be fully developed for a few years, and it's only then that the interventions will be delivered. Swimming in the sea at the edge of my city has made me obsessed with how it manages its sewage. At the heart of Edinburgh's system is Seafield sewage treatment centre, Scotland's largest wastewater treatment facility, processing 265 million litres of wastewater daily and serving nearly 850,000 people in the capital and the wider Lothians. I once even went for a tour of it, and it's actually beneath this treatment centre that I swim most Sundays, at the Seafield end of Portobello Beach, a relatively wild spot, edged by dog roses, often visited by oystercatchers and, and relatively quiet – no doubt in part due to the infrastructure which rises above it. A crowd of swimmers on the beach on International Women's Day Currently Seafield is financed, designed, built, owned, operated, and maintained by Stirling Water Ltd under the Almond Valley Seafield and Esk Private Finance Initiative. Stirling Water subcontracts the operation and maintenance to Veolia Water Outsourcing Ltd and Scottish Water oversees the facility and collaborates with both Stirling Water and Veolia to ensure performance and compliance with environmental standards. The long-term plan, however, is for the transition of the treatment plant back into Scottish Water ownership as part of what the water company describes as 'a broader strategy to bring PFI assets under direct control', with the expectation that this will enhance operational efficiency and align the facility more closely with Scottish Water's long-term strategic goals. The transition is scheduled to be completed by 2032 after the contract expires in 2029. In recent years significant investments, of £34m since 2011, have been made to modernise the facility. However it still has its problems – not least for those of us who live in Leith, the pong that it emits on warm days. Though further small investments are planned including measures to move sludge through the site more quickly, which will help reduce the risk of odours, there is no provision within the current delivery plan to carry out any significant investment apart from base maintenance. The earliest point at which Scottish Water may potentially invest and enhance Seafield would be 2033. Vicky Allan after a swim at Portobello (Image: Herald&Times_GordonTerris) But modernising Seafield is just one small part of evolving the sewage system cope with an Edinburgh that faces both rapidly growing population and the more extreme rains of climate change. One way of preventing sewage overflow in a growing city is by removing surface water from the sewer network, and there are plans to manage this through what's called 'blue-green' infrastructure. A pilot, for instance, is being developed collaboratively with City of Edinburgh Council in the Craigleith catchment to demonstrate a range of such interventions. Following the closure of Portobello beach last year, Murray wrote to the Scottish Government asking what was going on. 'They essentially,' he recalls, 'said, well, we think it's seagull poo and dog poo. But my question is, 'Where are the wet wipes coming from then?'' Like Murray, I'm aware of sewage more through the arrival of wipes and sanitary towels on the sands as I am. A floating pad is enough to make me swim 'heads up' as we swimmers call it, in a bid to stop water entering facial orifices "People swim in there all the time,' says Murray. 'It's really important to get it right. But also the beach has become massive for the local economy and we don't want this kind of issue to develop. We need to nip it in the bud. The issue with sewage and water is that swimmers get sick, children get sick, animals get sick. I'm just frustrated at the dismissiveness of their response.' But swimmers themselves are often sanguine about the sewage and keen not to let the threat of bacteria get between them and the water. They are mostly aware of the flaws of the sewage system and how it functions. They don't expect it to suddenly come with a no-spill guarantee. Lynne Carter, an all-year-round swimmer at the beach, says, 'Water quality scares last year did stop me swimming for a while at Porty and I swam elsewhere. But as soon as the alerts stopped, I was straight back in. I'd love the water quality to be high all the time, but I don't think that's realistic for a city beach. 'I'm unlikely to swim if it's 'poor' but above that and I'm ok. I wouldn't dunk if the quality isn't great and definitely keep my mouth closed. With no water quality tests outwith summer swimming season, I just judge the water myself. In the summer I check the SEPA website if in doubt (eg after a lot of rain or if I hear any alerts from local folk).' She has, she says, never been ill after a swim. Nor have I, though I know a few people who have, and I'm aware of friends who are cautious around when they swim because of lowered immune system. Research is growing, meanwhile, into the impact of sewage on swimmer and public health. Over the past year, a project at the University of Edinburgh, Beyond the Flush, has been surveying Portobello swimmers and raising awareness around the way faecally polluted freshwater environments, such as rivers, could be a key source of the microbes, genes, and contaminants that promote bacterial resistance to antiobiotics – what are often termed 'superbugs'. Increased human activity, waste production and sewage overflows, from densely populated urban areas can cause water bodies, the Beyond the Flush website explains, to become 'potential reservoirs for antibiotic resistance genes'. 'Wild swimmers who come into contact with these contaminated waters risk exposure to difficult-to-treat infections.' But on Portobello beach, as it happens the sewage isn't what is bothering the swimmers right now as the weather shifts from hot and dry to wet. Rather, it's the giant red blobs arriving on the sands and drifting in the waters. News that lion's mane jellyfish, which pack a dangerous sting, are back has made swimmers hold back or reach for their wetsuits. Though down at Porty it takes a lot to keep us out of the water for long.
BBC News
04-06-2025
- BBC News
People in Rushden told 'wash food and shoes' after Monoworld fire
People living near a warehouse engulfed by fire nearly a fortnight ago have been told to wash homegrown food and clean Environment Agency (EA) has agreed "limited activities" can now take place at Monoworld in Rushden, Northamptonshire, where a major incident was declared on 23 from a large quantity of burning plastic at the recycling site on the Sanders Lodge industrial estate could be seen for advice to clean produce and outdoor footwear - as well as garden furniture and cars - was issued by North Northamptonshire Council. A spokesperson for the authority said: "Air quality has improved, and residents are no longer advised to keep doors and windows closed."They added that monitoring of local watercourses had not revealed "any adverse impacts" on water or wildlife "as most of the fire water run-off was contained on site or diverted to foul sewer". What is the advice? The council has told gardeners and allotment holders towash hands thoroughly after working and before handling foodremove and clean outdoor shoes before going insidewash produce thoroughly under a running tapremove outer leaves of vegetablesclean smoke residue from garden furniture and carsIt said anyone who experiences breathing difficulties should contact their doctor or dial 999. On Wednesday, the council said the EA was now allowing "limited activities" at Monoworld "as long as the company remains compliant with their environmental permit, working practices, and it remains safe to so".The incident has now been closed by the fire service. Parts of the industrial estate not affected by the blaze "remain operational". Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
