Seaton (Cornwall)
Seaton Beach is located at the foot of the wooded Hessenford valley on what is a relatively quiet stretch of the Cornish coast. The River Seaton meanders across the beach here and acts as a focal point for children who can safely play here. The water here is generally safe to swim in and the beach is quite sheltered from both waves and the wind by the high cliffs to the west.
Overflow locations
The map below shows the locations of the storm overflows that have the potential to impact water quality at this bathing water.
The map shows whether or not a storm overflow is currently active, the time and duration of the last spill at that location, and our investment commitments that are specific to that overflow.
Seaton (Cornwall) storm overflow map
Water quality sample results
The graphs below show the significant reduction in harmful bacteria in the Environment Agency’s (EA) water samples since the 1990s. E. coli and Intestinal Enterococci exist in all open water - they are found in human and animal poo, and get into the water via sewage spills, road drainage, agricultural livestock, or wildlife and birds. The EA uses the levels of these bacteria to decide whether to award this beach bathing water status.
2025-2030 investment programme
To help reduce the risk of environmental impact from our sewerage network, and to contribute towards improving bathing water quality at Seaton Beach, we have earmarked circa £1,000,000 of investment up to March 2025*.
In March 2021, we completed improvements to Seaton pumping station storm overflow performance. These included:
- separation of wastewater resulting from highways run off in Tregunnick Lane. Reducing non-sewage related wastewater from the network helps reduce the need for storm overflows to operate
- removal from our sewerage network of water from land drainage in the car park area
- sewer rehabilitation to remove watercourse flooding in the storm overflows.
In addition, further surface water separation is planned.
Alongside this will be an evaluation of the pumping station, with a view to an upgrade to improve resilience and performance. It is planned to be completed by 2025.
We are also looking to further investigate the operation of Menheniot sewage treatment works overflow to understand how best to make improvements by 2025.
The 2025-2030 investment programme is currently being scoped out. If you’re a community group or part of a local network and would like to have your say see ‘Your Beach, Your Say, Our Investment’.
*Amounts earmarked for investment may change dependent on the final design of the optimal solution and costings provided by our supply chain.
4 year overflow spill information
The data shown in the table below is the reported annual total spill number for each overflow which has been identified by the EA for this bathing water.
The assignment of an overflow to the bathing water does not always mean an impact will occur, it can be dependent on a number of factors such as tidal state and weather conditions. Sometimes it has been allocated just for investigation purposes and has no impact at all.
All data collected goes through vigorous quality assurance processes before being included in the counts. Sometimes debris can trigger false spills to be recorded, resulting in potentially higher than actual spill numbers.
Number of spills
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Church Square storm overflow, Menheniot | 10 | 2 | 9 | 7 |
| Factory Houses Menheniot pumping station overflow, Liskeard | 9 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Menheniot sewage treatment works settled storm overflow | 125 | 60 | 59 | 93 |
| Scawns Hill storm overflow, Menheniot | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Seaton pumping station overflow | 84 | 67 | 84 | 86 |
The beach profiles were created in line with information provided by our partners, Environment Agency, RNLI, Keep Britain Tidy, MCS - Beach Guide and British Beaches.