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BBC<\/p>\nChloe Parkman<\/p>\n
BBC News, South West<\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n
The Environment Agency detected elevated readings of ammonia in a brook linked to the beach<\/p>\n
Swimmers have been told to stay out of the water at a Devon beach after a pollution incident.<\/p>\n
The Environment Agency is investigating after it detected “elevated readings of ammonia” in a brook that connects to the bathing water at Exmouth beach.<\/p>\n
South West Water (SWW) said it had not had any storm overflow spills in the area.<\/p>\n
Beachgoer Jamie Steadman said: “We spent money on all day parking, went to the beach for an hour and [were] then told we can’t swim in the water.”<\/p>\n
Mr Steadman visited the beach at about 11:00 BST before lifeguards and the council started to display warning signs.<\/p>\n
He said lifeguards would not reveal further details about the pollution after instructing swimmers to exit the water.<\/p>\n
“The response was ‘we can’t tell you but there is pollution in the water’,” he added.<\/p>\n
“They’re telling everyone to get out of the water… but there’s no explanation as to why, what or when.<\/p>\n
“The whole of Exmouth beach is now cordoned off.”<\/p>\n
‘Red flags’<\/p>\n
East Devon District Council (EDDC) said a “pollution incident reporting tool” was issued as a precaution by the Environment Agency due to “elevated ammonia levels”.<\/p>\n
The Environment Agency said: “South West Water are supporting this action by checking their assets, including for any potential misconnections to their sewerage network in the area.”<\/p>\n
EDDC said council officers lowered the blue flag and lifeguards would fly the red flag to advise against swimming.<\/p>\n
“No swimming signs will also be displayed,” it said.<\/p>\n
“We hope we can remove these signs and the red flags as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n
SWW said: “The Environment Agency have assured us that they are thoroughly investigating and we will continue to support in any way we can.”<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Beachgoer Louise Hughes had been hoping to swim<\/p>\n
Exmouth resident Louise Hughes said it was “disappointing”.<\/p>\n
“We came today to the beach because it was so hot, we really wanted to go swimming,” she said.<\/p>\n
Alex Harding said water pollution had never been a problem for him when travelling abroad.<\/p>\n
“Why is this just a British problem?” he asked.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Mr Harding said too many excuses were being made about water pollution<\/p>\n
He added: “Why can’t we get our act together and just make it so that, consistently, you can come to a beach? It’s not much to ask, is it?<\/p>\n
“Coming to a beach and to go in the sea, it’s not rocket science.<\/p>\n
“But all too often it’s just ‘no, you can’t go in because of this, because of that’, excuses, excuses.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chloe Parkman BBC News, South West BBC The Environment Agency detected elevated readings of ammonia in a brook…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":148750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[746,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-148749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115034739831479682","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}