Ashprington STW
The monitor is reporting and shows no discharge.
This looks like a fault, not a storm.
This overflow has discharged in dry weather 22 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 Ashprington STW, serving about 446 people on a 181 m³/day permit.
No capacity signal in the record.
On our estimate the works has spare capacity for about ~850 more people before it reaches its permitted flow.
The same works has emergency overflows too
All emergency overflows →2 pumping-station emergency overflows feed Ashprington 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 31 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
- 181 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
- Investigate the cause of the spillsInvestigationcomplete 2022
- PR24 U_MON4 from U_INV2 investigation (U_MON4c)Monitoringdue 2026
- MCERTS certification of an AMP7 U_MON3 driver output overflow operation monitor (U_MON3a)Monitoringdue 2026
An investigation or monitoring measure is active — a step towards a fix, not a fix in itself. It must lead to an improvement before anything changes.
What you can do about this one
Ask for the data
Under the Environmental Information Regulations, Ashprington STW'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
22 dry spills and 0 pre-STW spills since 2020. Pick a year to see its events below.
2023: 44 spills · 143 discharge events
Counted spills — the EA's 12/24-hour block method, the basis of the 10-a-year cap. Published annual return where available, computed the same way for the current year. Two ways to count →
Dry spills, every year
22 dry spills since 2020 · showing up to 12
Spilled before its works
0 events since 2020 · started while Ashprington STW stayed shut
This overflow has never been recorded spilling ahead of its treatment works.
Spills by month, 2023
Dry Wet weatherEvery spill in 2023, 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 143 in 2023.
Excluded from the counts, classification and flags above — too short to weigh against rainfall, and often an operational blip rather than a genuine discharge. Listed here for completeness. How we know.