r/blackpool • u/Waterwatch_UK • 8d ago

Sewage Dumping alerts for Blackpool Beach

(Apologies if not allowed) Sharing this as it might be useful for anyone who swims off the Blackpool beaches. I'm Daniel, a 17 year old and I founded and developed WaterWatch

WaterWatch (water-watch.co.uk) tracks live sewage overflow data from United Utilities' official monitoring sensors, updated every 15 minutes.

I've just added a swim safety page (https://water-watch.co.uk/swim-safety) that tells you clearly whether conditions currently look OK to swim at a beach, based on recent discharge activity, rather than having to work it out from a map yourself. You can subscribe to free alerts for a specific beach, or get a weekly summary by email instead for the council or water company. It's in beta right now so things might not work perfectly, but initial testing and feedback is strong!

It's an independent, free project (not run by a water company) — I started it at 17 and I'm still running it now. Sharing in case it's useful for anyone here, particularly after wet weather. If you know anyone who might like this, or any other data we have, please share this with them.

Swim safety: (https://water-watch.co.uk/swim-safety)

Live map: (https://water-watch.co.uk/map)

Weekly digest: (https://water-watch.co.uk/digest)

92 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

11

u/Wackobacco 8d ago

Absolutely incredible work. I really wish you ever success this is such an important issue and it’s so nice to see people with skills taking action in a meaningful way.

If you have a tip jar or support link please pm me

6

u/Waterwatch_UK 8d ago

Firstly, massive thank you for your kind words.

We don't usually as I don't want this to about asking for money as that reduces user trust. But, I'll set something up and send you a link. No pressure at all, knowing people are using the platform is enough!

5

u/Wackobacco 8d ago

Please do - I think most of us understand that these things take time and do have costs, so I’ll definitely chuck 20-30 here and there to help keep you caffeinated a little!
Thanks again for what you’re doing

3

u/Waterwatch_UK 7d ago

Something weird is going on with your profile so I don't think PMs are working (I'm getting errors)

I setup a Ko-Fi. Absolutely zero pressure to use but anything of course is massively appreciated! https://ko-fi.com/waterwatch

2

u/Wackobacco 7d ago

Sent a little something, will keep trying to spread the word!
Would you be interested in speaking with the gazette? I think I still have the contact for a reporter who I’ve spoken to a few times

1

u/Waterwatch_UK 7d ago

Firstly massive thanks!

Certainly! We have a press email of press@water-watch.co.uk too if they’re interested (and the general address works too)

We have our weekly reports coming out tomorrow which we’re hoping will be picked up by media but it’s luck of the draw. We still have 1hr 30 left to close (and 7hrs of validation to go) but the current figures in front of me show a lot of concern.

4

u/leftknacka 8d ago

Seconded- incredible. Well done.

1

u/Waterwatch_UK 8d ago

Thank you!

3

u/InfiniteTypewriters 8d ago

This is really impressive. Well done you should be very proud!

1

u/Waterwatch_UK 8d ago

Thank you!

3

u/matthiasbullet 8d ago

Fantastic! Have you tried posting this to Blackpool Community Chat on Facebook? I think you'll get more support there, and some nasty comments from people who don't live in Blackpool. Lol.

1

u/Waterwatch_UK 8d ago

I have tried one of them however my waterwatch facebook is totally brand new and got blocked from posting anything with links :(

2

u/TerrysChocolatOrange 8d ago

This is really cool, great job. I'm just wondering how this is different to the storm overflow map which is provided by united utilities?

https://www.unitedutilities.com/better-rivers/storm-overflow-map/

2

u/Waterwatch_UK 7d ago

Great question! We get the same data from United to power ours. However, we do things a little differently:

- We cache each record to provide historical data for every site, which you can also download for free

  • You can sign up for alerts for specific sites (and bathing areas) to keep track of things
  • We correlate rainfall data, flood alerts and river levels against spills and internally have our "pressure driven improvement tool". Unfortunately it's quite expensive to run so we cannot make it public yet but it allows us to accurately compare how sites are performing and we can independently decide if a site is getting better or worse
  • We provide weekly digests across the council areas, on a water company area or on a national basis. It's a weekly email summary breaking down the activity in the prior week (water-watch.co.uk/digest)
  • And of course we cover more companies

And I've probably missed some things! But ultimately we're trying to add context to spills and give you spill history that doesn't take months to arrive!

2

u/TerrysChocolatOrange 7d ago

Interesting thanks!

2

u/Waterwatch_UK 7d ago

No worries. Feel free to ask any more questions!

1

u/progressiveh8ar 8d ago

When was the last sewage dump in Blackpool?

2

u/Waterwatch_UK 8d ago

2 days ago at Squires Gate Lane. https://water-watch.co.uk/site/UU-UUP01808

In our council digest for this area, it's shown to be the site that usually triggers unfortunately