Northumbrian Water 'pleased' as new figures show reduction in storm overflow spills across the North East

New data from the Environment Agency shows that the number of storm overflows discharging in the region has reduced by almost 6,000 spills (13%), down from 46,492 (2023) to 40,792 (2024).

The Event Duration Monitoring (EDM) report, published by the EA, also shows that the average number of spills per overflow has dropped from 30 to 26 in the last year, and that the total duration of spills has seen a 12% reduction.

The reductions are because of action taken by the water company over the last 12 months that include millions of pounds of investment in infrastructure, including underground tanks built in Northumberland.

The improving EDM results also come despite the impacts of climate change and 2024 being the eighth wettest year on record.

Richard Warneford, Wastewater Director at Northumbrian Water, said: “The EDM results show that we have some of the very lowest number and durations of spills in the country.

“We are pleased to see a reduction in spills, especially during a year filled with numerous named storms and a higher-than-expected amount of rainfall.

“As well as this, we can also confirm that we did not have any serious pollution incidents throughout the whole of 2024. That is now three years in a row since we last had a serious pollution incident and we are industry leading in this space.

“This is a great start to seeing improvements across our region - however, we know that there is still a long way to go, reducing storm overflow use is something that our customers care deeply about and it's a real priority for us going forward.”

Northumbrian Water is committed to continuing the hard work and reducing storm overflow spills even further in 2025 and are pioneering an innovative technology known as “Smart Sewers” to help achieve this.

The Smart Sewers project was launched in July 2024 and involves using AI and sensors to help move wastewater around the companies’ system of pipes in real time to balance flows over a greater area – helping to reduce the risk of needing to use a storm over spill to relieve the network.

It is a UK-first project, the largest of its kind anywhere in the world and uses a combination of new technology, sensors and AI analytics to lower the risk of overflows needing to happen.

The water company has invested £20m in setting up and trialing the project and in February this year connected over 800 sensors and sections of network to Smart Sewers in the Tyneside area, using the technology for the first time.

Smart sewers operated on 15 separate occasions during rainfall in February and every single one showed positive results in terms of stopping storm overflows, that would have normally spilled because of the weather conditions.

The overall aim is for smart sewer technology to be deployed across all of the areas it can make a difference across the whole of the North East in the future.

Northumbrian Water is investing £80m to reduce the use of storm overflows and to upgrade the wastewater network between 2020 and 2025.