Billinge South PS

Storm overflow run by United Utilities, discharging into Trib Black Brook.

Storm discharge at pumping station St. Helens North constituency
Right now
Discharging now
Since on · 5 h 2 min so far.
Times are UK time. Company feed updated just now

"Not discharging" means the company's monitor reports no discharge right now — not that the water is clean. The feed publishes status only; no discharge volume is measured.

2026 so far
11spills
at least 103 h discharging on 9 days · live feed, before 28 Feb via Top of the Poops, not yet official · 1 discharge whose end the feed did not report (counted, no hours)
2025 official
23spills
261 h · −30% on 2024
Rank in United Utilities
#926
of 2,242 overflows by 2025 spills (1 = most)
Monitor in 2025
100% working
Long-term average 34.3 spills a year

Year by year

The Environment Agency's official annual returns, counted the EA's way (12/24-hour spills). 2026 is our own running count, the same way, from the live feed: our own log of it begins on 28 February, and the discharges before that are Top of the Poops' record of the same feed. The feed reports only each overflow's latest discharge, so a discharge it moved past before we saw it end is counted as one spill with no hours: the hours are a floor. The official figure is published next spring.

2024
33 spills · 351 hmonitor 100%
2025
23 spills · 261 hmonitor 100%
2026so far
11 spills · at least 103 h

A spill is the EA's 12/24-hour count: the first 12 hours of a discharge count as one, each further 24 hours with discharge as one more. "Monitor" is the share of that year the monitor was working, so a 0 beside a working monitor is a real zero; "no data" means the monitor produced no usable data that year — not zero. Years before 2024 are matched to this site by name and location, because the EA's site IDs changed that year; a monitor figure beside one of them means the outlet's permit confirms the match.

Twin outlet

United Utilities runs another overflow within 300 m that also discharges into Trib Black Brook. They share the sewer and the storm, so one outlet's figures are only part of what reaches the water.

0m Billinge South PSUUP00238Billinge South Pumping Station 2spills in 2025

This overflow (Billinge South Pumping Station): 23 spills in 2025. Distances are between the published outlet points. The names in brackets are United Utilities's own, from its return.

What the 2025 return says

From United Utilities's annual return to the Environment Agency for this overflow.

High-spill review
High spill threshold not met
Long-term review
Not asset maintenance - Hydraulic capacity
Investigation
No investigation activity in reporting period
Improvement work
No improvement action in reporting period
Monitored since
2020
Water body
Black Brook (Mersey Estuary)

"High spill threshold not met" means this overflow did not spill often enough to trigger the EA's formal high-spill review for that year. It is not a statement that the spills were harmless.

Discharges we have recorded

81 discharge periods since 1 Jan 2024, 1 still open, 1 whose end the feed never gave. 72 of them come from United Utilities's own event-duration-monitoring records (published on Stream, Jan 2024 – Dec 2025); the live feed adds anything after that. The official annual count is the figure to quote.

Show 30 earlier (of 81)
StartedEndedDischarge time
18 h 33 min
10 h 7 min
1 d 1 h
6 h 10 min
8 h 54 min
16 h 34 min
9 h 56 min
12 h 43 min
10 h 22 min
21 h 39 min
55 min
9 h 22 min
1 h 42 min
2 h 46 min
32 min
52 min
1 h 17 min
1 h 14 min
8 h 29 min
1 h 13 min
4 h 9 min
22 h 30 min
4 h 46 min
2 h 14 min
1 h 2 min
41 min
1 h 18 min
15 h 13 min
5 h 0 min
1 d 14 h

The year figures above use the EA's 12/24-hour counting method, so they are comparable with the official figures; the monitor log's 143 raw blocks were merged into 81 continuous discharge periods (gaps under 15 min joined).

What the feed showed

FloodRadar's own record of every change of state United Utilities's live feed has shown for this overflow, kept since : 4 states. The feed publishes its status now and its latest discharge, nothing older; the discharges above are read from this. It is here so the figures can be checked.

Show the last 4 states
SeenStatusSinceLatest discharge
Discharging → no end yet
Not discharging →
Discharging → no end yet
Not discharging →

Rain nearby last 30 days

Nearest live rain gauge: Rainfall gauge nr St Helens, 2.8 km away. Brown shading = when this overflow was discharging; ▼ = a discharge start.

Overflow shading is a timing match, not proof of cause — heavy rain and spills share a trigger. Times come from the water company’s event-duration monitor (site status only; no discharge volume is published).

Where it is

Nearest river gauge
Haydock West End Road (Black Brook) · 2.7 km
Nearest rain gauge
Council area
St. Helens District (B)
United Utilities's own name for it
Billinge South Pumping Station
Site reference
UUP00237 · permit 016920126
Coordinates
53.48572, -2.71913

Tell me when this overflow discharges

One message when the company's monitor reports a new discharge here. At most one every 6 hours.

Setting this alert needs JavaScript. The alerts you already have are on your alerts page.

The alert repeats the monitor's status: whether the overflow is discharging, not how much or why. It can only tell you about a discharge that starts after you turn it on.

Concerned about this overflow?

Report pollution you can see or smell to the regulator straight away; the company handles complaints about the overflow itself.

Write to the MP

The Environment Agency's return places this overflow in the St. Helens North constituency. An MP can ask the company and the regulator questions on a constituent's behalf. These words carry the official figures; change them as you like.

The link opens Parliament's own "Find your MP", which gives the MP's name and how to write to them. FloodRadar sends nothing and keeps nothing you write. Check the constituency against your own address: an MP acts only for people who live in it.

Live status: © United Utilities storm overflow activity data, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Annual spill figures: Environment Agency Event Duration Monitoring return, © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right, Open Government Licence (OGL) v3.0. Storm-overflow spill events: © the respective water company, published on Stream (data.streamwaterdata.co.uk) under CC BY 4.0. Discharges marked "via Top of the Poops", and this year's figures before 28 February, come from Top of the Poops' record of the same company feed, used under CC BY-SA 4.0: the feed's own start and end times as its pages print them, not their derived hours. Times are shown in UK local time. FloodRadar republishes the monitor's status and the EA's figures; it does not measure discharges itself. Constituency and council area from the EA's return: contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.