Plastic beads spreading on Sussex coast after ‘catastrophic’ spill, meeting told | Pollution

The massive dumping of plastic beads at Camber Sands is devastating for local people, wildlife and tourism and the beads are scattering along the coast, residents heard at an emotional public meeting on Thursday.

Millions of tiny toxic plastic balls are believed to have escaped into the sea from sewage treatment plants in Eastbourne, East Sussex, around two weeks ago when a mesh screen keeping them inside broke. They started washing up on Camber Sands beach last Thursday, and the situation got worse over the weekend.

Environment Agency sources suspect it was one of the worst plastic pollution events in England, with around 10 tonnes of marbles spilled: plastic pollution campaign group Strandliners estimated it was probably around 650 million marbles.

“It’s catastrophic,” Sarah Broadbent, who chairs the country’s tourism board 1066, said at the meeting attended by hundreds of local residents, representatives from Southern Water and the area’s MP, Helena Dollimore. “We really rely on the tourists here, who come for the beach. We will now be at the bottom of everyone’s vacation list.”

She and other local people depended on the beach for their happiness and mental health, she said: “The beach is a factor in everyone’s life here. It’s catastrophic for us.”

Richard Oakes, local head of the Environment Agency, told the meeting he expected the incident could be classified as a Category 1 pollution event, the most serious form.

He confirmed the pearls had been found along the coast from Hastings to Dungeness, as well as inland from Rye Harbour. The harbor nature reserve, a site of particular scientific interest, is popular with locals, with its big skies and salt marshes frequented by waders, and it was hoped that the pearls would not penetrate so far.

When Oakes confirmed that the pearls had been found in the salt pan, those in the room heaved a sad sigh. There were murmurs of “no.”

“What I’m really concerned about,” Dollimore said, “is when birds start washing up dead on the preserve. I think it will be extremely upsetting.”

Anthony Skinner, who runs a kitesurfing business at Camber Sands, is one of 175 people who spent days on all fours using sieves, tongs, shovels and brushes to try to clean the beach. He and others came to the meeting to get answers from the water company and the Environment Agency.

“I was one of the first on site,” Skinner said, “I raked the seaweed to expose the pearls underneath. Our beauty spot has been sullied, this will change people’s perception of the coast. We were already dealing with sewage and road runoff, now we have to deal with this pollution too.”

Hastings and Rye is the most deprived constituency in East Sussex and relies heavily on its tourism industry. There are also fears the spill could affect the already struggling fishing industry because the beads are toxic to marine life. “Fishermen are already going through tough times, and now they have to put up with these toxic logs,” said Rye Mayor Andy Stuart.

Southern Water customers have received the biggest bill increase in the country this year, with rates up 47% on average. This feels like a double injustice to those who face pollution caused by the company.

John Penicud, managing director of wastewater at Southern Water, told the meeting that the Eastbourne treatment site was old, “built in 2000” and that a screen on the tank containing tonnes of plastic beads, used to filter wastewater, had broken. He added that five other Southern Water treatment centers were using the beads.

He said the company was “truly sorry” for the spill and pledged to pay for the clean-up, but confirmed some of the money would come from customer invoices. Penicud said it would be financed by a “mix of funds” – shareholder investment and customer invoices.

He explained that new processing sites no longer use the beads, only sites built in the 1990s and 2000s. “In the construction of our new plant since the early 2000s, we no longer use beads. We use what is called membrane technology.”

Although it will be impossible to completely eliminate the hundreds of millions of pearls, the people of Camber continue to work to find as many as possible. “We’re very upset about what happened. It’s close to our hearts,” Dollimore said. “I think this incident is probably one of the biggest incidents of plastic pollution ever recorded in this country, certainly one of the biggest in history on the south coast of England. And it’s really serious.”