\n On Sunday, August 30, signage was put up at Littlehampton beach warning people of untreated sewage in the sea.\n<\/p>\n
\n It came after Southern Water<\/a> alerted Arun District Council to the incident, which had taken place 5km off the coast and at the mouth of the River Arun.\n<\/p>\n \n It was later discovered to have been caused by faulty valve and testing found the water has since returned to an “excellent” rating.\n<\/p>\n \n In a post on social media, Arun District Council warned swimmers of the incident.\n<\/p>\n \n It wrote: “This morning we were notified by Southern Water of a discharge of untreated sewage into the sea 5km off the coast of Littlehampton and Climping as well as at the mouth of the River Arun.\n<\/p>\n \n “We are adopting a precautionary approach and are putting up signs at the beach advising against bathing in the sea and suggest that people and dogs do not go into the sea to swim or paddle.”\n<\/p>\n \n Southern Water said the discharge sewage followed heavy rainfall and occurred due to its storm overflow system.\n<\/p>\n \n \u00a0A spokesman for the company said: \u201cOn Saturday night, August 29, Littlehampton received 5.4 times the average daily rainfall for August and to protect homes, schools and businesses from flooding the storm release system operated as it is designed to.\n<\/p>\n \n \u00a0\u201cSeparately, during repairs at one of our pumping stations mechanical problems were encountered, and a valve could not by fully opened causing an additional release to prevent flooding. Because of the risk of harm to the environment, we immediately raised this an incident and put in place a plan to mitigate the risk.\n<\/p>\n \n \u00a0\u201cIn addition to extra expert engineers mobilised to the pumping station we moved a tanker fleet of 50 vehicles the area to carry flows if needed, prepared overland pipes to bypass the valve, stood up additional teams and carried out environmental monitoring.\n<\/p>\n \n \u00a0\u201cOvernight, the valve was successfully opened and the tanker fleet and pipeline were stood down.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n \u00a0Storm overflows operate to protect areas from flooding, releasing excess water to prevent sewage from backing up into homes and businesses.\n<\/p>\n \n However, the system has faced heavy criticism as it often can pollute rivers, seas and sensitive habitats.\n<\/p>\n