Spill evidence · Friends of the Dart

FERRY BOAT SPST_PSCSOEO_DITTISHAM

Pumping station overflow · SBB00446 · feeds DITTISHAM MAIN_STW_DITTISHAM

Dry spill

Evidence strength

High confidence

✓ Sustained discharge (≥1 h)
✓ Dry across a 3-day window
✓ Rain gauge close (≤5 km)
✓ Monitor 100% operational that year

The discharge

Spill day: Thursday, 23 November 2023
Started: 23 Nov 2023, 02:39
Ended: 23 Nov 2023, 03:39
Duration: 1 hour
Receiving water: Dart (Tidal)
Parish: Dittisham

Rainfall evidence

Daily rainfall at the matched gauge (Brixham) for the spill day and the days before. A spill is dry when every day in the window is ≤ 0.25 mm.

1-day window: Dry spill3-day window: Dry spill4-day window: Wet weather

Date	Rainfall
23/11/2023 (spill day)	0 mm	dry
22/11/2023	0.1 mm	dry
21/11/2023	0 mm	dry
20/11/2023	0.1 mm	dry
19/11/2023	1.4 mm	rain

River flow that day: 17.695 m³/s. Verify at the EA rainfall station.

Gauge proximity

Outlet (red) vs matched rain gauge (blue), 5.0 km apart. Closer means the rainfall reading is more representative of the overflow.

Loading map…

Severity & context

Bathing water: Dittisham, Dart Estuary
Shellfish water: Dart
Ahead of the works: Yes — the treatment works' own overflow stayed shut that day, so capacity was available. Avoidable.
EA annual return (2023): 97 counted spills · 432 h total
Monitor uptime (2023): 100% operational

⚠ Coastal / tidal location — very short discharges around high tide can be monitor artefacts; corroborate with tide times before relying on short events here.

Method & provenance. Dry/wet classification is decided by rainfall at the nearest EA gauge — ≤ 0.25 mm on the spill day and each preceding day of the window (how we classify). Spill data: Environment Agency EDM (outlet SBB00446). Rainfall: EA Hydrology gauge 9dba2bf3-f5ea-4616-ac8e-dce16dbc0dc8. A dry spill is precautionary evidence of a likely fault, not proof of an offence — we test the rainfall, not the works' flow. Generated by River Hub.