Govt plans warning system if beach sites exceed US health standards

By Raymond Hainey and Cooper Stevenson

The public is to be warned if sewage pollution levels off Bermuda’s beaches hit danger levels, Health Minister Trevor Moniz said yesterday.

And he added that the results of tests for seawater contamination would be made public.

Mr Moniz said: “This alert system may take the form of a flashing notice on the Department of Health/Government website along with media notifications from the Government’s Department of Communication and Information to all local media outlets.

“It may alternatively take the form of a physical flag or sign on that beach or bathing area.”

And he added he would be speaking the US Consul General — whose office issued a health warning on the Island’s beaches — to “clarify some of the details”.

He also produced test results for bacteria carried out between April and November last year — which showed a total of 12 sites stayed well below the US standard for clean beaches.

Mr Moniz was speaking after the US Consulate posted a warning to US residents and tourists that the Island’s waters could be unsafe at times, depending on wind and weather conditions.

The US Consulate warning also said that US visitors planning to swim off the south shore should consider immunisation against Hepatitis A and typhoid, as well as gastroenteritis and other health problems.

The advisory, published on the Consulate website earlier this week, also said that sewage contamination along the south shore could reach four times the acceptable US standard at times.

The warning came after a study by scientists last year highlighted that pumping untreated sewage out to sea caused “intermittent contamination” of the waters of the south shore, “creating a public health hazard”.

The survey was carried out by experts from Laval University in Canada and the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), with Government Departments of Health and Environment and the Central Government Laboratory.

But Mr Moniz said that any pollution problems were short-lived and resolved themselves in hours.

He said: “To date there has not been any water sampling information which has caused us to close the bathing beaches — something which we would do if results showed that contamination levels were over acceptable limits for more than one day.

“This includes those initial test results taken by Laval University — through BIOS — in the spring of 2013.”

Mr Moniz added: “These situations are always difficult and clearly the US Consul General here has to take his direction from the State Department so he did what he was compelled to do.

“We’re still working with the US Consul General to clarify some of the details ... It’s lacking some clarity — that’s what I would consider and we will be filling in the gaps and giving the US Consul General more detail.”

And Mr Moniz said that a major health survey carried out in 2011/12 looking at the cause of food and waterborne infections that cause diarrhoea — labelled gastroenteritis or GE — had shown that swimmers were not at risk.

He added: “Furthermore, we haven’t had a case of typhoid on the island — a disease mentioned in the US Consul’s warning to citizens this week — for over 20 years.”

Mr Moniz said that the risk of contamination of inshore waters was caused by specific weather conditions — strong south-south east winds and waves — and had not happened again since the 2013 survey, according to the Government’s own sampling.

But he added: “If the results come back with elevated levels of contaminants, Department of Health personnel go back to that sampling area as soon as the results are known and test again — by which point typically levels have returned to normal and there is no need to alert the public or to close the beach. That is how quick these episodes can arise and can resolve themselves.”

He said he was not aware how the discovery of high sewage contamination levels had been handled in the past.

But Mr Moniz added: “I believe if they had received two consecutive tests which were over the level there would have been an alert.”

US Consul General Bob Settje said his staff had “no record of ever having received reports of illness attributable to swimming in Bermuda waters.”

But he added that it was unusual for the Consulate to receive reports of illness “of any kind from any source” and that only if consular services were required, like helping to trace or notify next of kin, would they be notified of illness or injury.

Mr Moniz said alerts would also be sounded if greaseballs — formed from kitchen grease pumped into waste disposal pipes — were found on the shoreline, although he stressed greaseballs “did not necessarily mean the water is contaminated.”

And he added that a campaign to encourage proper disposal of kitchen grease from homes and restaurants would be stepped up,

Mr Moniz said that the new sewage plant at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital would be operational within the next few days and be able to treat sewage “at least to a primary level” prior to becoming fully operational later this year.

Mr Moniz added: “Long term options for extending the outfall and for improved sewage treatment are being discussed and include possibly extending the pipeline — however, bear in mind the pipeline belongs to the Corporation of Hamilton and has been in existence for almost 100 years.”