Buller Road Combined Sewer Overflow

Storm overflow run by South West Water, discharging into River Exe.

Storm overflow on the sewer network Shellfish water Exeter constituency
Right now
Not discharging
Last discharge ended on (2 days ago).
Times are UK time. Company feed updated 2 min ago

"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
5spills
at least 2.0 h discharging on 5 days · live feed, before 28 Feb via Top of the Poops, not yet official · 8 discharges whose end the feed did not report (counted, no hours)
2025 official
0spills
0 h · same as 2024
Rank in South West Water
#1,180
of 1,357 overflows by 2025 spills (1 = most)
Monitor in 2025
98.8% working
Long-term average 5.3 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.

2021
26 spills · 466 hmonitor 95.0%
2022
6 spills · 50 hmonitor 89.0%
2023
0 spills · 0 hmonitor 98.7%
2024
0 spills · 0 hmonitor 56.3%
2025
0 spills · 0 hmonitor 98.8%
2026so far
5 spills · at least 2.0 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.

Other outlets here

South West Water runs 4 other overflows within 300 m that also discharge into River Exe. They share the sewer and the storm, so one outlet's figures are only part of what reaches the water.

42m Church Road Jct Of Cecil Road CSOSBB00264CHURCH RD/CECIL RD_CSO_EXETER 9spills in 2025
42m Dunsford Road CSOSBB00387DUNSFORD RD_CSO_EXETER 47spills in 2025
42m Okehampton Road CSOSBB00867OKEHAMPTON RD_CSO_EXETER 11spills in 2025
45m Buddle Lane CSOSBB00186BUDDLE LN_CSO_EXETER 20spills in 2025

This overflow (BULLER ROAD_CSO_EXETER): 0 spills in 2025. Distances are between the published outlet points. The names in brackets are South West Water's own, from its return.

Downstream of this overflow

The next gauge downstream that the river map places is Topsham (River Exe), 5.1 km along the river.

A river gauge measures the level of the river; it does not measure this overflow's discharge, and a spill does not by itself explain a change there. It reaches the river through a sewer, so the distance is approximate. Traced on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels.

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.

What the 2025 return says

From South West Water's annual return to the Environment Agency for this overflow.

High-spill review
High spill threshold not met
Investigation
No investigation activity in reporting period
Improvement work
No improvement action in reporting period
Monitored since
2019
Water body
Not part of a WFD catchment

"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

27 discharge periods since 15 Jul 2026, 8 whose end the feed never gave. Recorded from the live status feed only — South West Water has not published an event-level log we hold, so this is what the feed has shown us, not a complete record. The official annual count is the figure to quote.

Show 17 earlier
StartedEndedDischarge time
4 min
2 min
18 min
2 min
6 min
8 min
26 min
4 min
6 min
4 min
2 min
2 min
2 min
4 min
2 min
2 min
2 min

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 50 raw blocks were merged into 27 continuous discharge periods (gaps under 15 min joined).

What the feed showed

FloodRadar's own record of every change of state South West Water's live feed has shown for this overflow, kept since : 59 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 40 states
SeenStatusSinceLatest discharge
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Discharging → no end yet
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Discharging → no end yet
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Discharging → no end yet
Discharging → no end yet
Not discharging →
Discharging → no end yet
Not discharging →
Discharging → no end yet
Not discharging →
Discharging → no end yet
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Discharging → no end yet
Discharging → no end yet
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Not discharging →
Discharging → no end yet

Rain nearby last 30 days

Nearest live rain gauge: Rainfall gauge nr Exeter, 3.9 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
Trews Weir (River Exe) · 1.4 km
Nearest rain gauge
Council area
Exeter District (B)
South West Water's own name for it
BULLER ROAD_CSO_EXETER
Site reference
SBB00188 · permit EPRJB3294WU
Coordinates
50.70536, -3.51698

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 Exeter 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.

Find the MP for Exeter

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: © South West Water 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. 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.