Soldier's Bay and Fort George Outfall

Guernsey Water Managing Director Steve Langlois said:

During the course of a routine media enquiry, the BBC shared a drone photo with us of the Fort George outfall. When we reviewed it, it was clear the outfall was not discharging as far out to sea as it should.

We immediately informed the Office of Environmental Health and Pollution Regulation and worked with colleagues from Guernsey Ports to get teams to the location the next day. An aerial and underwater drone, CCTV sewer robot and specialist dye were used.

These indicate the fault may have been caused by a break in the inspection chamber partway along the outfall.

Access to the chamber is only possible at very low tides – next due at the end of this week and start of next. Our teams, helped again by Guernsey Ports, will attend and attempt a repair on these occasions. If it isn’t possible, we will review our options to safely and quickly repair the outfall so it once again discharges further out to sea.

Because of where the outfall is currently discharging, wastewater will not disperse in the way it was designed to. We have been in contact with the Office of Environmental Health and Pollution Regulation, who are best placed to provide advice on water quality.

We’ll provide a further update once our teams have been able to access the outfall and attempted the repair.