The sea off Exmouth could turn a strange colour this Friday, April 9, but don t be alarmed! Environment Agency officers will release bright fluorescent green and red dyes at two points on Exmouth promenade to check the potential impact of a local stream overflow on the town's beaches and bathing waters

The sea off Exmouth could turn a strange colour this Friday, April 9, but don't be alarmed! Environment Agency officers will release bright fluorescent green and red dyes at two points on Exmouth promenade to check the potential impact of a local stream and storm overflow on the town's beaches and bathing waters.

The testing will take place this Friday between 9.30am - 12.00 noon around the Maer Lane Pumping station and Littleham Brook. The work is part of an ongoing monitoring programme carried out by the Agency in conjunction with South West Water and East Devon District Council.

Follow-up testing will take place on Monday (April 12) from 9.30am - 5.00 pm. The dye testing will show the dispersion across the bathing waters and allow the Agency to target any future investigations in relation to bathing water quality.

The monitoring is being carried out prior to the start of the new bathing season in May. It will be take place during incoming and ebb tide to achieve the best results. The brightly-coloured dyes are non-toxic and quickly break down in the sea.

'Dye testing is a very useful means of checking dispersion after streams and outfalls flow into the sea and increases our understanding of any possible impacts on local bathing waters. We are particularly interested to see how close the flows come to our bathing water sampling points,' said Mike Ingman for the Environment Agency.