• The association Eau et Rivières de Bretagne considers that the quality of bathing water is "unsatisfactory" in the region.

  • She points to certain practices of the Regional Health Agency which would distort beach classifications.

  • The association intends to seize the administrative court.

Is it good to swim in Brittany?

No, according to the association Eau et Rivières which considers that the quality of bathing water "is not satisfactory" and criticizes the Regional Health Agency (ARS) for not correcting its classifications while they omit samples reporting pollution.

"We were able to demonstrate that the bathing water classifications did not really reflect the state of the water", explained Laurent Le Berre, departmental delegate of the association during a press conference in Brest, pointing the finger "Certain practices" of the ARS.

"The ARS discards samples and then put the best ones in order to artificially increase the quality of the bathing water", explained Brieuc Le Roch, lawyer for the Breton association.

A complaint against the State filed in 2020

While bacteriological pollution is often linked to rainy events, rainwater leaching the soil and being able to overflow the wastewater networks, Breton beaches are closed as a preventive measure when rainy phenomena are announced, explains the association which ensures that for years the ARS "considered that a sample taken during a preventive [beach] closure could be eliminated" from its calculations.

"Obviously in terms of health, the fact of preventively closing the beaches in the face of rainfall phenomena is something that is commendable but it is not by removing bathers from the water that its quality will improve", regretted Brieuc Le Roch.

In August 2020, the association lodged a complaint against the State before the European Commission, accusing it of "diverting" European regulations on the quality of bathing water.

The classification of many beaches "distorted" according to the association

If since this complaint, the association ensures that it has no longer observed the removal by the ARS of samples indicating pollution in the estimation of the quality of bathing water, it stresses that these classifications cover four years.

"The errors made since 2016 have therefore distorted the classification of many beaches, and will further distort them for several years," noted the association in a press release, saying that it had asked the ARS to correct its erroneous classifications.

"Two months after this request we still have no response from the ARS," regrets Eau et Rivières, which intends to seize the administrative court in order to obtain "the real classifications of Breton beaches".

When asked, the ARS was unable to respond immediately.

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  • Pollution

  • Planet

  • Environment

  • Water

  • Regional health agency

  • Bathing

  • Association