South West Water has started preparatory work ahead of delivering £5 million worth of projects to further improve bathing water quality at Torbay's beaches.
Engineers working for South West Water will be carrying out surveys to map ground levels and underground utility apparatus, and sinking boreholes to establish ground conditions.
The results of the surveys will help South West Water design projects to ensure Torbay's beaches reach the more stringent standards of the European Union's revised Bathing Water Directive, which comes into force in 2015.
Programme manager Ian Lake explained:
"Last year, South West Water announced it would be spending up to £20 million on a number of projects to further improve bathing water quality at key beaches including Torbay, where we will be investing around £5 million.
"Our proposals for Torbay are in the early stages of development, and this survey work is all about gathering data so we can develop detailed plans.
South West Water is currently looking at a number of possible engineering solutions in different locations, which might include increasing storm water storage capacity in the sewerage network and improving combined sewer overflows. The extra capacity and the other improvements will mean fewer discharges from the network during extremely wet weather.
Of the 15 designated bathing waters in Torbay, 14 met the European Union's current guideline (excellent) standard in 2013. Eight of Torbay's beaches are currently predicted to meet the new higher guideline (excellent) standard under the revised directive in 2015 (using data from 2010 to 2013)
There are 146 designated bathing waters in the South West Water region covering Devon, Cornwall and Lyme Regis, Dorset. This is 30% of the bathing waters in England and Wales
In 2013, South West Water announced that it would spend up to £20 million on a range of schemes to improve bathing water quality at Lyme Regis, Teignmouth, Torbay, Mothecombe, Seaton (Cornwall), Looe and Combe Martin
The investment up to 2015 will be financed from the company's own resources and will not impact on the average household regional bill. The firm is also proposing to invest an additional £44 million on maintaining bathing water quality between 2015 and 2020.
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