This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Beaches pass clean water test
15/09/2006
All Scotland's 63 designated bathing waters have satisifed European standard for the first time since monitoring began.
Deputy Environment Minister Rhona Brankin said:
"Scotland's bathing waters have never been cleaner to swim in. The quality of Scotland's waters have improved significantly over recent years and for the first time ever, all of Scotland's waters have passed rigorous, season-long testing.
"People come from all over the world to enjoy our wonderful coastline, so we should welcome this tremendous news for tourism, for environment and for public health.
"We are investing to protect Scotland's natural resources. Today's positive results reflect a lot of hard work from a wide range of bodies - the Executive, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Scottish Water, councils and farmers - to tackle sources of pollution that impact on bathing waters. The warm summer and lack of rainfall has also played an important part in this achievement.
"A revised Bathing Water Directive will mean even tighter standards in the future, and we are continuing to work hard to ensure compliance in the years to come."
European Directive 76/160/EEC sets mandatory bacteriological and other health-related standards for bathing waters in Europe.
SEPA samples bathing water quality during the bathing season, which in Scotland runs from June 1 to September 15.