Pressure is mounting on Southern Water after it became clear it must have known about the risks of the release of millions of tiny pellets from one of its treatment plants — and after tests on a sample revealed that they contain traces of arsenic and lead.
Scientists at King’s College London found that levels found in the so-called bio-beads did not officially make them hazardous waste, but — if ingested by birds and fish — could prove hazardous to wildlife and dogs. Released into nearby soil they could poison the plants themselves.
Sussex Wildlife Trust calls for ban
Southern Water apologised for the spill and said it was “unable to comment on third party testing”. But Sussex Wildlife Trust has called for a ban: its director of conservation, Henri Brocklebank, told the BBC there was “the need to get these beads out of the natural environment” and to “fast track the removal of them from our waste water treatment works, not just in Sussex but nationally”.
The beads are often made — unpromisingly — from recycled electronic waste. However, their use, since the early 1990s, was seen by water companies at the time as a successful part of water treatment. They work by attracting harmful bacteria to their surface. But pollution risks became clear in 2010 when over 5 billion of the beads were released from a South West Water treatment plant near Truro.
Despite this knowledge, the technology, now regarded by the water companies themselves as outdated, is still used in 14 older sites along the south coast, including five operated by Southern Water.
The Cornish escape came when a mesh designed to keep the beads in a tank split. Again, at Southern Water’s Eastbourne wastewater plant, the cause was the failure in a metal screening filter.
Camber Sands, a key conservation area
Many of the 10 tonnes of bio-beads from Eastbourne washed up 32 miles down the coast at Camber Sands, a five-mile long stretch of sandy beach popular with families and bathers. The area is also a key conservation area, hosting thousands of migrating birds each year.
After the discovery of the beads in early November, the local authority, Rother District Council, commissioned a clean-up by specialists Nurdle. The company was called in earlier this year when plastic pellets washed ashore along the East Yorkshire and Norfolk coasts. Volunteers later joined the Camber clean-up and Southern Water brought in specialist equipment to separate beads from the sediment.
While water companies have known about the risks of beads escaping for some time, their response has been lukewarm. South West Water initially pledged to phase out their use, but has since opted to replace them with larger beads, which it claims are less likely to escape. Southern Water has admitted that bio-beads are an outdated technology, but has yet to set a timetable to phase out their use.
There are alternatives to beads
The beads could potentially be replaced by those made of glass or reconstituted coconut shells. Electric currents are another option being looked into. Other alternatives are out there, reports Sussex Bylines’ environment writer Mick Channon.
The area’s Labour MP, Helena Dollimore, is calling on water companies to stop using the beads and has launched a petition to Parliament, backed by the Sussex Wildlife Trust. She wants a national ban, with the Government working with water companies and the Environment Agency to end their use.
So why are water companies still using them in coastal plants — the very place they could do most damage?
The MP for Hastings and Rye told Sussex Bylines: “I wasn’t aware that these plastic beads were used in local wastewater plants until 320 million washed up on our coast, causing an environmental catastrophe. The use of beads is an outdated technology and better modern methods exist.
“These beads are contaminating some of our most precious habitats, from the sand dunes at Camber, to the internationally protected Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Our area, and especially our wildlife, will be dealing with this incident for many years to come. We should be looking at all options to bin the beads.”
Confronting the water companies
Dollimore has had some success in taking on the water bosses. She challenged the Southern Water CEO Lawrence Gosden during a committee session in Parliament, helping win compensation for hundreds of residents who, in May 2024, were left without water in their homes for days on end.
Of the latest incident, she told us: “Southern Water have a responsibility to clean up their own mess and make amends to our community for this devastating incident. I will continue to hold them to account on their promise to fund a programme of nature restoration in our area, and push for them to clean up every last bead. We will judge Southern Water by actions, not words.”
But this disaster, following on from the longstanding sewage scandal, looks like history repeating itself. Once again, privatised water companies have been found to be playing fast and loose with the environment — putting profit before safety. And once again they are likely to argue they need time to implement eco-friendly solutions.
But could tougher legislation force them to act sooner rather than later?
Stricter environmental laws, under the government’s Plan for Water, mandate upgrades in water plants to reduce pollutants like phosphates. Arsenic and lead are already subject to stringent controls: why not extend these to include poisonous bio-beads?
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