AMID record-breaking heat for the time of year, officials from the Environment Department have moved to ease Islanders’ fears about seawater pollution at some popular swimming locations.
Routine testing for bacteria carried out last week led to a “poor” rating for four of the 16 locations monitored weekly between May and September, but officials said there were unlikely to be ongoing concerns, with such results commonly reported after heavy rainfall.
The areas with high readings beyond the threshold between good and poor were Victoria Pool and Havre des Pas in St Helier, Long Beach at Grouville and Plémont in St Ouen. Green Island was marked as good, while the other 11 locations were marked excellent.
The results were highlighted on several social media sites, prompting mixed feedback from Islanders, with some expressing concern and others saying there was nothing abnormal and that they would be heading to the beach, and to swim, in order to enjoy the hot weather.
The Infrastructure and Environment said in a statement: “Routine bacteriological seawater sampling taken on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 May at Plemont, Grouville, Havre des Pas and Victoria Pool has identified unacceptable levels of bacteria in seawater in these locations.
“However, we believe that the poor results are due to significant rainfall events on Sunday and Monday – heavy rainfall events cause run-off from land into the sea and we believe that the poor results are due to this natural occurrence.
“General public health advice is to avoid entering the sea for at least 48 hours following heavy rainfall events.”
Another round of routine sampling is scheduled to be carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Since the heavy rain experienced at the start of the week, the Island has seen gradually drier and hotter conditions, and today a new record all-time high for May was achieved.
The temperature surpassed the previous record of 28.9°C, dating from 30 May 2003, during the early afternoon and was continuing to rise.
Jersey Met confirmed that should the temperature reach the forecast maximum of 30°C, it would be the earliest date in the year that this mark had been reached, with the previous mark being set on 6 June 1996, when a high of 30.7°C was recorded.
Should the temperature reach similar levels on both Monday and Tuesday, this would meet Jersey Met’s official definition of a heatwave: maximum temperatures of 28°C for three consecutive days.
Hot weather advice was issued by Public Health Officials on Friday, with Islanders recommended to cool off indoors during the hottest time of day, when the UV is at its strongest, leaving strenuous activities for later in the day when it is cooler, drinking plenty of water and avoiding coffee and alcohol and using sun cream and hats when outside.
Hundreds of bikers braved the heat on Sunday morning to take part in the annual Big Ride Out, which saw a procession of motorbikes being ridden across the Island from St Catherine’s Breakwater to St Ouen’s Bay, raising money for the charity Holidays for Heroes.
