A mission to protect the environment around Dorset’s iconic Chesil Beach will get a boost with a new sewer lining project underway later this month.

More than 800m of sewers are being relined within the village of West Bexington as part of the drive to reduce automatic discharges of untreated stormwater to rivers and sea. Teams from the local utility, Wessex Water, will reinforce the network by sealing pipes to prevent foul water escaping into the environment and groundwater entering sewers, which can overwhelm the system.

The £180,000 project will build on the water company’s recent investment to beef up protection of the celebrated coastline, following completion of an £800,000 pipeline last year. That year-long scheme saw replacement of nearly a mile of rising main sewer - a pipeline carrying pumped wastewater - helping to cope with sudden increases in water volume.

Further upgrades to ensure foul water is pumped away from the public toilets on the beach at West Bexington were also completed to help reduce the number of times a nearby storm overflow operates automatically by 50 percent. An additional project to keep rainwater out of the foul sewers on Beach Road in the village is at the planning stage.

Combined sewage and stormwater overflows relieve the threat of sewage backing up and flooding homes and businesses during heavy rain, but this method can impact on the environment. The additional investment will not only mitigate sewage flood risk to properties, but also reduces automatic discharges into rivers and sea from overflow pipes.

Chesil Beach is part of the UK's only natural UNESCO World Heritage Site - Dorset & East Devon Coast. It is known as the Jurrasic Coast, and famed for its extraordinary geological array, which shows some 185 million years of the Earth's history, including a number of internationally important fossil sites.

Project manager Paul Delves said, “Relining the sewers in West Bexington continues our commitment towards protecting this historically-important and popular area, with Chesil Beach and the South West Coast Path that is well used by walkers, as well as a coastal reed-bed close by.

“Sealing them in this way further helps protect the network from being overwhelmed which can lead to flooding or the release of untreated wastewater and it backs up the results achieved by the major pipeline project we completed in the area last year. We’re now working closely with local customers to finalise details of a further project to separate rainwater from the foul sewer system in this area, which will also help to reduce these discharges.’’

The relining work uses no-dig techniques, which mean a resin liner can be inserted into existing pipes without needing to excavate them. No-dig is quicker and less intrusive than conventional pipe extraction and replacement.

Wessex Water has also unveiled proposals to invest a record £400 million towards the goal of reducing overflows into the environment between 2025 and 2030, subject to approval by industry regulators.