Residents raise concerns over serious risk creeping into iconic beach waters: 'Getting more and more frequent'
A proposed seaside housing development in Wales has residents worried that already questionable sewage infrastructure will spring new leaks, further contaminating the area's precious St. Bride's Bay, local rivers, and even the ocean, according to reports from the BBC and Pembrokeshire Herald.
Mill Bay Homes, a company that has developed more than 300 properties in southwest Wales since 2013, intends to add 76 more homes overlooking the resort near Marine Parade in Broad Haven, Pembrokeshire, according to the news outlets.
About 34% of the new dwellings and apartments would be classified as affordable housing, according to the reports. It's a need, as the World Economic Forum reported that about 1.6 billion people around the planet lack an adequate place to live.
But recreationists are worried about sewage lines that already have documented leaks draining even more into their favorite swimming holes as a result of the development.
"Swimming is very popular, but there is quite often a problem with sewage, especially when the weather's been bad," Kate Freeman told the BBC. "There needs to be more houses for people, but the sewage treatment infrastructure needs to improve before that happens."
BBC reported that sewage discharged for nearly 602 hours in 2023, with 47 spills. Foul water also oozed from Broad Haven South Beach "for a total of 53 hours in 2023, with 21 separate spills recorded." The data was from the utility company Welsh Water.
As a result, local environmental consultant Andy Drumm has written to local officials with concerns about more homes.
"In recent years there has been quite a lot of additional housing development in the village, but the sewage treatment works has not kept up," he said in BBC's story. "We're getting more and more frequent dumps and leaks of raw sewage into the stream that flows onto the beach here. Any increase in housing has to be accompanied by an increase in sewage treatment capacity."
Sewage leaks can be a disaster for waterways. Nonprofit American Rivers said that untreated waste has salmonella, hepatitis, dysentery, cryptosporidium, and other diseases — all of which are not conducive to an enjoyable swim.
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And American rivers are not immune to pollution. Water watchdogs are concerned about microplastic contamination in the Great Lakes. The tiny particles are being studied for human health concerns, including how they impact our organs, according to Health Policy Watch.
For Mill Bay's part, the company told the BBC that plans would be made "'to mitigate any additional pressures' on the existing sewage system and that they would 'fully fund improvement works to the sewage infrastructure.'"
Residents can make sure developers in Wales and elsewhere hold true to their promises by staying educated on the topic, spotlighting so-called greenwashing. That's primarily when a company makes impressive planet-friendly plans but seldom lives up to them because it never intended to, or it inflates the importance or impact of a change to obscure polluting acts it continues to carry out.
American Rivers can help you focus your efforts on advocacy as well as other ways to help waterways stateside. Simple actions like collecting water in a rain barrel can save town water and cut your bill.
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