The Environment Agency is starting annual water quality testing at bathing beaches in England.
During the bathing water season environment officers will take 20 samples at each location, from mid-May until the end of September. These will be tested in Environment Agency labs and the results published on the Bathing Water Explorer website shortly afterwards.
New higher standards are now in place and beaches get an annual rating of Excellent, Good, Sufficient or Poor.
Water quality for beach-goers was better than ever in 2015, with a total of 97% of England’s bathing waters passing and 264 beaches reaching the top ‘Excellent’ water quality standard.
From this year beach managers will be required to display these ratings and information about water quality at each beach. Out of 415 bathing water locations only 10 have been rated as Poor. All beaches remain open for the public to use.
The Environment Agency said hundreds of joint projects have been completed to successfully drive up standards over recent years, including significant investments by water companies to reduce pollution and advice been provided to farmers on how to reduce pollution into rivers.
The Agency added that it remains committed to working with a range of partners to maintain high standards and further improve the water quality in rivers and at beaches.
Information and advice about water quality is available at every bathing beach and online on the Bathing Water Data Explorer.
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