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Southern Water has completed the controlled sinking of a new outfall pipe nearly 1km long at Swalecliffe in Kent.
The new pipe is approximately 410m longer than the existing sea outfall pipe in the area.
It will discharge storm overflow water into Tankerton Bay in Whistable.
It is part of a wider £7 million upgrade of the Swalecliffe Wasterwater Treatment Works.
There have been several protests in Whistable in recent years due to the number of sewage spills recorded in the area.
The Tankerton Bay outfall recorded 25 storm overflow spills in 2023, working out at 16.54 hours of releases. The Gorrell Outfall, just off of the Whitstable coast, saw 34 spills, totalling 81.64 hours of releases into Tankerton Bay.
The new outfall pipe is just one part of the Swalecliffe upgrade which also includes installing a new water chamber and pipework which the company says will provide an extra 1.8 million litres of water storage.
Southern also has plans to install 2,000 slow-draining water butts at homes along Tankerton beach.
In total, Southern estimates that upgrades to the wastewater treatment works should reduce sewage overflows after storms by up to 20%.
John Penicud, director of wastewater operations at Southern Water, said: “The Swalecliffe engineering project will replace a sea damaged outfall pipe, as part of a major upgrade of its wastewater treatment works and a regulatory requirement, it will allow teams to install a much longer pipe in its place.”
However, not everyone is convinced that the longer pipe will have the desired effect. SOS Whitstable say its construction will not solve the crisis of effluent regularly being discharged off the Kent coast.
Founding member Sally Burtt-Jones said: “It will not improve any negative impacts on biodiversity and ultimately it is leaving it for the next generation to solve.
“Here in Whitstable, we live in a tidal area, and what happens when the tide goes out? It comes back in again and brings whatever has been released back in with it.”
The new pipe is made of high-density polyethylene and was manufactured in Norway in two parts, each approximately 500m in length. The pipes have been towed across the North Sea, to a port on the Medway and was harboured there until the trench was ready.
The trench will now be backfilled, to cover it up.
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