An event or combination of events impacting on bathing water quality which the Environment Agency would not expect to occur, on average, more than once every four years.

Algae are types of plant which can be very small like pinpoints floating in the sea or larger like seaweed growing on the sea bed.

How clean a bathing water is.

The point at a bathing water where we take water samples. This is at the place where most bathers are expected.

The bathing water season in England runs from 15 May to 30 September. This period is when we expect most people to bathing waters. Water quality is regularly checked during the season.

More information can be found here:http://www.blueflag.global/.

A volume of water, such as part of a river, lake, stream or the sea.

The catchment of a bathing water is the surrounding area of land that drains water into that bathing water

There are two types of bathing waters – coastal and inland. The directive has different standards for these types of waters.

This is an estimate of the number of bacteria in a sample of water. This is done by counting the number of colonies (groups) of bacteria growing on a filter through which the sample has been passed.