Last updated at 14:05, Friday, 02 November 2012

Beaches from Maryport to Allonby are about to get cleaner.

A 21-metre-deep underground tank will stop 10,300 cubic metres of dirty storm water entering the sea near Maryport every time it rains.

The tank has just been switched on by United Utilities.

The £5 million project took more than a year to construct near the water company's pumping station in Hutton Place.

Complete with powerful pumps, the tank increases the capacity of the town’s sewer network and vastly reduces the number of times it needs to overflow in heavy storms.

Nearby beaches towards Allonby, as well as coastal wildlife,will benefit as a result.

Project manager Geraud Ramond said: “Our new tank makes Maryport’s sewer system much bigger, the equivalent of four Olympic-sized swimming pools.

“Excess rain water in the sewers gathers here until the rains subside. Then powerful pumps push it back along our pipes to the treatment works where it is thoroughly cleaned.

“We reckon it will improve the situation by more than 90 per cent, and that will mean the seas around Maryport are much cleaner when it’s rainy, especially during the bathing season.”

Dan Bond, Environment Agency bathing water manager, said: “This will go a long way to us meeting revised quality standards for bathing waters that come into force in 2015.”

First published at 11:50, Friday, 02 November 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk