Sables d'Or

Source Information

As part of the Watermen Testers program, Surfrider Foundation Europe volunteers monitor recreational marine and freshwater quality at several sites in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The sampling season goes throughout the year, on an irregular basis depending on availability of volunteers. That is why the monitoring frequency selected is "Other" for all the beaches in the region. Priority is given to places where Watermen Testers suspect a pollution. Before (from 2014 to 2017), samples were collected bi-monthly. According to the European Directive 2006/7/CE, water quality is based on 2 bacteriological parameters: E. coli and enterococcus. Threshold between average and poor water quality : Freshwater : Enterococcus  660 CFU/100mL E. coli : 1800 CFU/100mL Marine water: Enteroccocus : 370 CFU/100mL E. coli: 1000 CFU/100mL A beach is marked green if the two results (Enterococcus and E. coli) are under European thresholds. A beach is marked red if one of the two or the two results is/are above the European threshold. A beach is marked grey when there are no current results or there is no available information. Special status beaches: Due to the high frequentation of beaches during the summer and the occurrence of storms, leading to wastewater treatment plant overflows, some beaches are exposed to short term pollutions. Uhabia – Bidart: In case of heavy rains, a valve holds untreated water at Uhabia’s estuary, and releases it 500 meters away from the coast during the night. Grande plage – Biarritz: Sewer overflows release untreated water directly on the beach. La barre – Anglet: This beach in mainly polluted because of Adour’s estuary which is just above, especially during floods.