Natural Resources Wales has published a report presenting the results of its monitoring and reporting programme against the standards in the revised Bathing Water Directive - 2015 is the first year that the stricter standards set in the revised directive were applied in Wales.

The Bathing Waters classifications became an Official Statistic for Natural Resources Wales in 2016, with the publication of the ‘Bathing Waters in Wales 2015’ report. The report presents the results of the 2015 bathing water monitoring,  discusses situations at individual bathing waters which had an impact on water quality and the improvement actions that can be taken.

The report says that European water policy has played an important role in protecting water resources. The first European bathing water legislation, in the form of the Bathing Water Directive, came into force in 1976. The revised Bathing Water Directive was adopted in 2006 - 2015 is the first year it has been fully implemented in the UK.

Introducing the report, NRW said bathing water quality in Wales has improved significantly over the past two decades.

There are 103 bathing waters in Wales. In 2015, all of the designated Welsh bathing waters met the tougher standards set by the revised Bathing Water Directive. Of the 102 bathing waters assessed, in Wales, 82 were of an excellent standard, 16 bathing waters achieved a good standard and 4 achieved sufficient standard. No Welsh bathing water was classed as poor.

In 2016 each one will be tested at least 12 times; immediately before and throughout the season from 15 May to 30 September. The results will be used to assess compliance with the directive's standards. As 2015 was the first year that the stricter standards set in the revised directive were applied in Wales, the designated bathing waters must now achieve even tougher water quality targets.

NRW described the results as a significant achievement, with three more Bathing Waters achieving excellent compared with the projected results in 2014.

Step change at Cemaes due to investment by Welsh Water

Major changes at bathing waters such as sewerage improvements may mean that data from before the changes are no longer representative of the current bathing water quality.

In 2015, Natural Resources Wales chose to apply a step change at Cemaes due to the significant investment by Dŵr Cymru  Welsh Water at Llanfechell sewage treatment works which discharges into the Afon Wygyr upstream of Cemaes designated European bathing water. The discharge contributed significantly to the bacterial levels in the Afon Wygyr and the bathing water.

 In order to improve bathing water quality at Cemaes, Dŵr Cymru have invested £800,000 at Llanfechell sewage works over the last couple of years. The works were completed by the end of March 2015, before the start of the 2015 season. Work involved the installation of ultra-violet light banks to kill bacteria in the effluent, plus improvements to the storm water storage facilities and replacement of storm pumps with variable speed pumps.

Bacterial samples taken by NRW have shown that the ultra-violet disinfection system has made a big difference in the bacterial concentration in the final effluent from the sewage works. As such the evidence shows that the water quality before the improvements did not represent the current situation and therefore a step change has been applied with regards Cemaes designated bathing water. This means that for Cemaes bathing waters the classifications have been derived from one year of sampling data (2015) instead of the usual four years.

The application of the step change at Cemaes bathing water resulted in a classification of sufficient for 2015 which is the same as the projected classification following the 2014 bathing season.

The report includes a case study of the Swansea Bay Bathing Water Group set up to tackle pollution in 2009 with Environment Agency Wales, City and County of Swansea and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water as key partners. Future work at Swansea Bay will include taking part in discussions about potential implications for bathing water quality of the proposed tidal lagoon.

The report says that European water policy has played an important role in protecting water resources. The first European bathing water legislation, in the form of the Bathing Water Directive, came into force in 1976. The revised Bathing Water Directive was adopted in 2006 - 2015 is the first year it has been fully implemented in the UK.

Click here to download Bathing Waters in Wales 2015