Blue Flag Beach, Swimming Banned: What the Award Really Means

The Blue Flag flies over the seafront, yet twice during the summer of 2026 the town of {{Taggia}} had to ban swimming outright. That's not a contradiction: the FEE flag and a mayor's swimming ban answer to two entirely different logics. On September 16, the town council debated exactly this, working through the two incidents that defined the season — a damaged sewer pipe and an enterococci spike flagged by Arpal, Liguria's regional environmental agency.

What happened: Taggia's September 16 town council meeting

On September 16, 2026, the {{Taggia}} town council held a session dedicated to reviewing the swimming season that had just ended — a season marked by two separate bathing bans. Opposition councillors raised the issue: Fulvia Alberti (Progetto Comune) filed a formal question about water quality, while the Progettiamo il Futuro group submitted its own question, a motion calling for an emergency wastewater treatment plan, and a proposal to set up a special committee on the issue. The debate reconstructed the timeline and the roles of the parties involved: the municipality, Rivieracqua (the water utility operator), and Arpal, the regional agency responsible for official bathing water testing in Liguria.

Blue Flag vs. "safe to swim": two systems that don't overlap

The Blue Flag is an international eco-label awarded once a year by FEE (the Foundation for Environmental Education), based on historical data and criteria ranging from average water quality over previous seasons to waste management, beach facilities, safety, and environmental education. It's a big-picture snapshot, not a daily guarantee. Bathing water safety, by contrast, is monitored in real time: regional environmental agencies (Arpal, in Liguria) run periodic sampling, and if any parameter exceeds the legal thresholds for bathing water, the mayor is legally required to issue a swimming ban — regardless of whether the town holds a Blue Flag or not. The two run on separate tracks: a town can hold the flag and, in the very same year, still have to close a stretch of coastline over a pollution incident.

Timeline of the two bans: June and August

The first incident began on June 5, when a burst sewer pipe near the mouth of the Argentina river triggered the first swimming ban, following a formal notice sent earlier that month to Rivieracqua and the regional government. Arpal's June 9 tests came back compliant, but municipal sampling on June 18 found intestinal enterococci above 1,000 CFU/100ml and E. coli above 2,000 CFU/100ml at three sampling points; as a precaution, mayor Mario Conio extended the ban to the entire coastline, and on June 15 the case file was forwarded to the Imperia public prosecutor's office. The second incident began on August 4, when an Arpal check found 300 CFU/100ml of enterococci against a 200 limit; on August 6, Rivieracqua's own tests were compliant but Arpal measured 360 CFU/100ml, while new samples on August 8 came back within limits and the ban was lifted on August 9. A third, separate issue involved damage to the underwater outfall pipe of the wastewater treatment plant between Arma and Riva, with repairs scheduled for late September expected to take up to 40 days; according to what emerged at the council meeting, no direct link was established between this fault and the August ban.

Why this can happen even in a Blue Flag town

Bathing water monitoring in Italy follows the regulatory framework transposing EU Directive 2006/7/EC, which requires periodic sampling throughout the swimming season: if a single sample exceeds the legal threshold for parameters like intestinal enterococci, immediate action is mandatory, regardless of any tourism or environmental accolades the town has received. The 2026 Blue Flag, awarded to {{Taggia}} for the first time, certifies average water quality and overall coastal management assessed over a historical record — it doesn't shield the coast from one-off events like a burst sewer pipe or a bacteriological spike. That's why the two systems need to be read separately: the flag tells a longer story, while a ban reflects a single day's data.

What it means for beachgoers

For anyone heading to the coast, a Blue Flag remains a useful signal of a destination's overall quality, but it's no substitute for up-to-date information on whether the water is actually safe to swim in that day. Arpal's testing data and any active municipal swimming bans are the sources to check before getting in the water — especially after heavy rain or reports of sewer system failures, which remain the most common cause of temporary spikes in bacteria levels, even at award-winning beaches.