TOTNES STW_SSO_TOTNES
Bacteria levels can stay raised for 24–48 hours after a spill ends.
This looks like a fault, not a storm.
This overflow has discharged in dry weather 61 times since 2020 — spills with no rainfall to excuse them. Its treatment works is not itself over capacity, so a catchment-wide explanation does not hold. Applied to this record, the two-stage lawfulness test is hard to pass: a recurring dry-weather discharge is not an exceptional circumstance, and where the remedy is routine maintenance the disproportionate-cost exception is hard to run.
How this verdict is reached →Can its works cope?
Full capacity view →This overflow drains to TOTNES STW, serving about 8,714 people on a 3,967 m³/day permit.
The works has headroom — spills here point upstream, to a blockage, failed pump or infiltration.
The same works has emergency overflows too
All emergency overflows →2 pumping-station emergency overflows feed TOTNES STW works — raw-sewage relief outlets that should fire only when a pump fails. They are not in this page's feed; between them they have discharged about 0.05 recorded hours.
Its permit
What the environmental permit sets for this overflow — and where the public record is silent, which is itself the finding.
- Pass-forward flow
- 3,967 m³/day (works DWF)
- Spill frequency limit
- None set
- Monitoring tier
- Not published
- Assessment trigger
- Crossed — over 10 spills/year
Is anyone acting on this?
- Install and run event-duration monitoringMonitoringcomplete 2021
- Install and run event-duration monitoringMonitoringcomplete 2025
The only measures on record are already complete, yet the overflow is still flagged — so further action is needed. That is a gap.
What you can do about this one
Ask for the data
Under the Environmental Information Regulations, TOTNES STW_SSO_TOTNES's telemetry, the works' flow-to-full-treatment setting, and any spill investigations are emissions information — they cannot be withheld on commercial-confidentiality grounds. A written request is the fastest lever.
Get it into the next programme
Investigations that will shape the 2030–35 environment programme must complete by this date. Putting this overflow on the record now — to South West Water and the Environment Agency — is what gets it considered.
Put it in the drainage plan
South West Water's draft Drainage & Wastewater Management Plan goes to a twelve-week consultation. A named overflow with evidence behind it is far harder to leave out.
The record since 2020
61 dry spills and 0 pre-STW spills since 2020. Pick a year to see its events below.
Dry spills, every year
61 dry spills since 2020 · showing up to 12
Spilled before its works
0 events since 2020 · started while TOTNES STW stayed shut
This overflow has never been recorded spilling ahead of its treatment works.
Spills by month — 2026 to date
Dry Wet weatherEvery spill in 2026, most recent first
Each event checked against the nearest rain gauge and against the treatment works' own overflow. Open any row for its evidence dossier.
Showing the last 80 events of 908 in 2026.