There has been a slight increase in the space of a year
A sewage spill near St Ives(Image: Andy Narbz)
Sewage was emptied into Bristol’s waterways thousands of times last year – find the discharges near you by using our interactive map.
There were a total of 8,075 sewage spills into rivers and streams in the wider Bristol area during 2024, an average of 22 a day.
That’s up slightly from 8,025 spills in 2023, according to figures from the Rivers Trust.
The spills ran for a combined total of over 53,000 hours (up from nearly 50,000 a year earlier).
The country’s sewage network empties both treated sewage and overflows of untreated sewage mixed with stormwater into rivers and waterways.
The vast majority of these dumping points are monitored throughout the year with the number of spills and the duration of the spills reported annually.
There were 563,730 spills across England and Wales in 2024.
It works out at an average of 1,544 a day. That is down from 1,588 per day in 2023.
Last year’s spills ran for a combined total of 4.55 million hours..
The Great Badminton Storm Tank was the most active spiller in our region last year.
There were 189 spills from the site running for a total of 4,012 hours. That’s equivalent to 167 days of non-stop flowing.
The Doynton Inlet was the next most active site. It spilled 126 times for a combined total of 2,484 hours.
That’s followed by the Tockington Moor Lane Storm Tank at 2,156 hours, Avonmouth Kingsweston Lane Storm Tank at 2,123 hours and Alveston Lower Hazel Storm Tank at 2,045 hours.
You can see how many spills have occurred in your local area by using our interactive map:
The most active spilling site in the country is at Salcombe Regis in Devon.
It was open constantly for the whole of 2024 according to the data, a total of 8,773 hours.
South West Water, the water company that operates the site, says it is investigating the cause of the high spill numbers from the Salcombe Regis storm overflow.
It also says that several “significant unauthorised connections to the sewer network are contributing high levels of additional flows into the sewer. This includes highway road gullies with extensive road runoff, which are allowing water to enter our sewers, dramatically increasing the levels in the network.”
A storm overflow into the River Lavant was the next most active in the country. It was open for a combined total of 6,830 hours in 2024. That’s equivalent to 285 days.
Wessex Water’s Hurdcott Storm Tank was the third most active at 6,467 hours, equivalent to running constantly for 269 days. A spokesperson for the company said that this was one of a number of sites impacted by high groundwater.
This is where groundwater enters the sewerage network, often from private pipes, and causes overflows to automatically operate to prevent flooding.