‘Environmental catastrophe’ fears as millions of plastic beads wash up on Camber Sands | East Sussex

Southern Water is investigating after millions of contaminated plastic beads washed onto Camber Sands beach, risking an “environmental disaster”.

The local MP said biobeads could have a serious impact on marine life, with fears rare marine life including seabirds, dolphins and seals could ingest them and die.

Hastings and Rye MP Helena Dollimore suspects the beads may have been spilled by a local water treatment center and has written to Southern Water chief executive Lawrence Gosden demanding an explanation.

Camber Sands in East Sussex is one of England’s best-loved beaches, with its rare dune habitat and wide expanses of golden sand.

Volunteers are racing against the clock to clear the beads and fill dozens of bags with plastic waste, but the size of the pollution leak is so large that they are unlikely to be able to remove it all.

Andy Dinsdale, from the plastic pollution campaign group filamentsHe said on Saturday: “This is the worst pollution incident I have ever seen. Contaminated plastic. Marine animals, when they go into the sea, will ingest small pieces of plastic, attracting algae, effectively smelling like food.”

“Once they’ve eaten it, that’s it: they can’t get it out. They’ll float to the surface. This will create a slick that attracts diving seabirds.”

He said the cleanup effort was tiring. “I was cleaning there yesterday. We’re really trying to piece together the timeline and the story of this terrible event. It’s terrible.”

“They are so small that from afar the beach looks normal. But when you get closer you see there are millions of black lumps under the seaweed. It’s an impossible task; volunteers have been raking for days and will continue to rake, but we won’t be able to get rid of them all. This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen on a dirty beach.”

Labor and Co-operative MP Dollimore, who is involved in the clean-up, said: “The large numbers of plastic beads arriving here pose the risk of environmental disaster. These biobeads are deadly to marine life and wildlife and we are already seeing more dead seals, fish and porpoises on the beach.”

“Local residents are working tirelessly to remove as many beads as possible, but it is a race against time. Southern Water urgently needs to determine whether local wastewater works are the source of these biobeads and I have asked them to dedicate all available resources to support the cleanup operation in the meantime.”

The beads are also dangerous to dogs because they contain a large number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are known to have carcinogenic properties, and often contain toxins such as lead, antimony and bromine.

A spokesman for Southern Water said: “We are working closely with the Environment Agency and Rother district council to investigate the source of the plastic beads washed up on Camber Beach. This investigation work is ongoing.”

“Rother district council is leading the cleanup of the beach using experts who use a vehicle with suction equipment to remove the beads. We are also supporting the cleanup.

“We carried out water quality sampling on the beach and this sampling had no impact on environmental water quality. This data was shared with Rother district council and the Environment Agency.”

The Environment Agency has been contacted for comment.