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

✓ Dry across a 4-day antecedent window
✓ Rain gauge close (≤5 km)
✓ Monitor 100% operational that year

⚠ Short discharge (<1 h) — weaker signal

The discharge

Spill day: Friday, 24 November 2023
Started: 24 Nov 2023, 09:55
Ended: 24 Nov 2023, 10:12
Duration: 16 minutes 49 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: Dry spill4-day window: Dry spill

Date	Rainfall
24/11/2023 (spill day)	0 mm	dry
23/11/2023	0 mm	dry
22/11/2023	0.1 mm	dry
21/11/2023	0 mm	dry
20/11/2023	0.1 mm	dry

River flow that day: 15.565 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.