Bathing Water Quality
The EU Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC) requires Member
States to identify popular bathing areas and monitor the waters for
indicators of microbiological pollution throughout the bathing
season, which runs from 15 May to 30 September.
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council has identified one
beach, at Aberavon, where sampling is carried out. Sampling for
coliform organisms is carried out by the Environment Agency on a
weekly basis during the bathing season.
In light of recent press coverage on the water quality at
Aberavon Beach the following information will provide visitors to
the area some reassurance.
There are two benchmarks for assessment of the bathing water
quality i.e. the Imperative and Guideline standards. The Imperative
standard is the mandatory standard which was breached at Aberavon
during 2006. There has been a continuous history of compliance with
this standard back at least as far as 1990. The breach of this
standard at Aberavon in 2006 was marginal and associated with two
periods of very heavy rain, which tends to result in raised levels
of river-borne pollution flowing into the sea.
A BLUE flag is flying high over Aberavon Beach, marking its
excellent water quality and facilities for Neath Port Talbot
residents and tourists to enjoy.
See: Blue Flag for Aberavon
Beach
The results are shown below:
Bathing Water Quality Downloads
(Note: to download the files, click on the links above. For further details on how to view PDF documents, refer to our Help pages.)
Advice on test results is also available from:
Environment
Directorate
The Quays
Brunel Way
Baglan Energy Park
Neath