Spill evidence · Friends of the Dart

FERRY BOAT SPST_PSCSOEO_DITTISHAM

Pumping station overflow · SBB00446 · feeds DITTISHAM MAIN_STW_DITTISHAM

Dry spill

Evidence strength

Medium confidence

✓ Dry on the EA 1-day window
✓ Rain gauge close (≤5 km)
✓ Monitor 100% operational that year

⚠ Short discharge (<1 h) — weaker signal

The discharge

Spill day: Wednesday, 22 November 2023
Started: 22 Nov 2023, 21:51
Ended: 22 Nov 2023, 22:22
Duration: 31 minutes 10 seconds
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: Wet weather4-day window: Wet weather

Date	Rainfall
22/11/2023 (spill day)	0.1 mm	dry
21/11/2023	0 mm	dry
20/11/2023	0.1 mm	dry
19/11/2023	1.4 mm	rain
18/11/2023	0.3 mm	rain

River flow that day: 19.126 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.

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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.