Henfield WwTW

Storm overflow run by Southern Water, discharging into Chess Brook.

Storm tank at sewage treatment works Arundel and South Downs constituency
Right now
Discharging now
Since on · 1 h 28 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
46spills
1,244 h discharging on 47 days · counted by us, not yet official
2025 official
36spills
327 h · −68% on 2024
Rank in Southern Water
#144
of 970 overflows by 2025 spills (1 = most)
Monitor in 2025
93.0% working
Long-term average 65.5 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 Southern Water's monitor log and the live feed. The official figure is published next spring.

2021
64 spills · 602 hmonitor 99.0%
2022
36 spills · 328 hmonitor 97.8%
2023
87 spills · 1,026 hmonitor 99.8%
2024
111 spills · 1,358 hmonitor 99.7%
2025
36 spills · 327 hmonitor 93.0%
2026so far
46 spills · 1,244 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.

What the 2025 return says

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

High-spill review
Performance - GW inundation
Investigation
Env Act (SODRP) investigation ongoing, UWWTR investigation ongoing
Improvement work
No improvement action in reporting period
Monitored since
2019
Water body
Chess Stream

This overflow spilled often enough to trigger the EA's high-spill review; the review line is the company's own stated reason.

Discharges we have recorded

142 discharge periods since 11 Feb 2024, 1 still open. 167 of them come from Southern Water's own event-duration-monitoring records (from its Rivers and Seas Watch service, Feb 2024 – Aug 2026); the live feed adds anything after that. The official annual count is the figure to quote.

Show 30 earlier (of 142)
StartedEndedDischarge time
15 min
15 min
34 min
15 min
1 h 8 min
1 d 3 h
42 d 18 h
4 d 4 h
21 h 53 min
1 d 8 h
3 h 54 min
1 d 15 h
4 h 1 min
18 h 49 min
11 h 2 min
19 h 59 min
2 h 3 min
2 h 4 min
2 h 32 min
4 h 4 min
2 h 48 min
56 min
4 h 4 min
15 min
18 min
20 min
10 h 59 min
4 h 5 min
46 min
23 h 32 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 187 raw blocks were merged into 142 continuous discharge periods (gaps under 15 min joined).

What the feed showed

FloodRadar's own record of every change of state Southern Water'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 Horsham, 4.8 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
Sakeham Weir (River Adur) · 1.8 km
Nearest rain gauge
Council area
Horsham District
Southern Water's own name for it
Henfield SSO - 115743
Site reference
SWS00417 · permit W00015
Coordinates
50.94183, -0.27129

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 Arundel and South Downs 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: © Southern 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. Spill-event history: Southern Water's Rivers and Seas Watch release history (riversandseaswatch.southernwater.co.uk), © Southern Water. Shown by FloodRadar: only releases Southern Water marks Genuine and that have ended; those it marks Not Genuine or still has under review are left out. Discharges marked "via Top of the Poops", 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.