disposal methods after the South Shore escaped becoming an environmental mess this week.

A 500-foot-long sewage slick sighted on Wednesday was traced to the hotel by Marine Police.

After further investigation the Works Ministry said in a statement yesterday that it had demanded a written explanation from the hotel.

"The Water Authority is empowered by law to investigate unauthorised disposal of effluent and to prosecute cases where regulations have been broken.'' It accepted Sonesta was disposing sewage through its sea outfall as authorised during its annual tank cleaning exercise.

It also accepted the majority of solids were trucked away.

However, "The Water Authority is concerned that possibly all the proper procedures were not followed,'' the statement said.

Government hydrogeologist Mark Rowe later commented: "There is major concern over this incident because if the wind or current direction had been different it could have ended up onshore.'' Pembroke resident Mr. Curtis Dawson, who reported the slick, had expressed outrage that any Government Ministry would allow raw sewage to be dumped along the South Shore in the first place.

"They don't call it the Gold Coast for nothing,'' he said.

Sewage disposal through sea outfalls has long been done on the Island.

Apart from Sonesta, also authorised to use outfalls are Elbow Beach Hotel, the Corporations of Hamilton and St. George's, Club Med and the US Navy Base.

The Ministry of Works insisted those and smaller sewer outfalls were "well-documented and routinely inspected''.

And the Environment Ministry regularly tested the effluent to ensure bathers' health was not threatened, its statement said.

The Ministry noted that up until 1975, major public developments were permitted to dispose of untreated effluent through an outfall.

But in the mid-1980s, the Water Authority closed most small outfalls.

All new major public buildings were required to install waste treatment facilities, which would separate solid waste from liquid waste resulting in "disposal of a fairly clear liquid effluent and the retaining of solids for disposal by some means of land''.