EA update on Praa Sands
Published: 05 May 2026
I’m emailing in response to your queries surrounding the recent pollution incident in Praa Sands and the Cornwall Live article.
On the morning of Thursday the 9th of April, an Environment Agency Sampler was taking a routine compliance sample from a private sewage treatment plant when they observed the presence of substantial sewage fungus around the treatment plant discharge point and receiving stream. This indicated an issue with the discharge and thus a pollution incident was logged and an Environment Officer attended the site shortly thereafter. Due to the proximity to Praa Sands designated bathing waters, a precautionary advice against bathing warning was issued on our SWIMFO website and the Local Authority was notified as the beach manager.
On site, some operational issues were found with the sewage treatment plant and, as a result, site management took the decision to stop the discharge and tanker flows away whilst the issues were investigated and remedied. The discharge initially ceased on the afternoon/ evening of Thursday the 9th of April. Typical Environment Agency procedure is to remove advice against bathing warnings from our SWIMFO website following roughly 2 tidal cycles from cessation of inputs of potentially polluting matter (This is usually around 24 hours). As such, we attempted to remove the warning on the evening of Friday the 10th of April however, due to a system error, this wasn’t possible. The Local Authority were still, however, notified.
The discharge restarted again on the morning of Saturday the 11th of April as it was believed that the treatment plant was back in full operation. An Environment Agency Officer tested the effluent being discharged which still did not meet permitted quality requirements and as such the site again stopped the discharge and continued tankering. Following the testing, the Local Authority were again, notified and the advice against bathing warning remained in place on our SWIMFO website. The discharge ceased by the afternoon/ evening of Saturday the 11th of April. The persisting system error meant that the online advice against bathing warning could not be removed as per our typical 2 tidal cycle procedure however, the Local Authority were notified on the morning of Monday the 13th of April, and the online warning was eventually removed on Tuesday the 14th of April.
On the morning of Saturday the 18th of April, after extensive tankering operations, re-seeding of the system’s biological treatment component, cleansing of the system’s reed bed and repair and re-configuration of the system’s blower mechanisms, the site began discharging again and an Environment Agency Officer re-tested effluent quality. Unfortunately, this still did not meet permitted standards. The site once again took action to stop the discharge and organised further tankering from the system. Observations of the site’s UV disinfection system cabinet indicated that this component was fully operational, and the effluent appeared to contain minimal solids (despite exceeding Ammonium limits). It was therefore believed that the effluent being discharged would still be receiving effective disinfection. For this reason, as well as the fact that the discharge would be stopping again relatively shortly thereafter, it was believed that the discharge would not have had a significant impact on bathing water quality downstream and so it was decided that another advice against bathing warning was not required.
The site was again attended on the afternoon of Friday the 24th of April where testing of the effluent indicated that it had finally reached permitted standards. As such, the site resumed the discharge. The site has also obtained their own Ammonia measuring device and will be undertaking regular testing of the effluent. This will allow them to identify and rectify any potential future issues early, reducing the likelihood of a repeat of this incident.
The Environment Agency will now look to finalise our investigations into this matter, taking into account various factors: environmental impacts, amenity impacts, culpability etc. Our regulatory response will be based on all of the available information.
If you would like to discuss this further, please contact our Customers and Engagement Team, who will be happy to help you. You can contact the team via DCISenquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk.
Kind regards,
Environment Officer