Howdon STW

Storm overflow run by Northumbrian Water, discharging into River Tyne Saline Estuary.

Inlet storm overflow at sewage treatment works Tynemouth constituency
Right now
Not discharging
Last discharge ended on (22 hours ago).
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
25spills
at least 6.7 h discharging on 29 days · live feed, before 28 Feb via Top of the Poops, not yet official · 20 discharges whose end the feed did not report (counted, no hours)
2025 official
33spills
187 h · −60% on 2024
Rank in Northumbrian Water
#294
of 1,547 overflows by 2025 spills (1 = most)
Monitor in 2025
99.9% working
Long-term average 67.5 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 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
83 spills · 723 hmonitor 100%
2025
33 spills · 187 hmonitor 99.9%
2026so far
25 spills · at least 6.7 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

Northumbrian Water runs 3 other overflows within 300 m that also discharge into River Tyne Saline Estuary. They share the sewer and the storm, so one outlet's figures are only part of what reaches the water.

0m Howdon STWNWL00711Howdon STW 3spills in 2025
0m Howdon STWNWL00713Howdon STW 113spills in 2025
0m Howdon STWNWL00714Howdon STW 120spills in 2025

This overflow: 33 spills in 2025. Distances are between the published outlet points.

What the 2025 return says

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

High-spill review
Not asset maintenance - Hydraulic capacity
Investigation
Env Act (SODRP) investigation ongoing
Improvement work
No improvement action in reporting period
Monitored since
2020
Water body
TYNE

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

450 discharge periods since 9 Jan 2020, 20 whose end the feed never gave. 395 of them come from Northumbrian Water's own event-duration-monitoring records (published on Stream, Jan 2020 – Dec 2024); the live feed adds anything after that. The official annual count is the figure to quote.

Show 30 earlier (of 450)
StartedEndedDischarge time
2 h 16 min
1 h 4 min
not captured, before not captured
1 min
not captured, before not captured
not captured, before not captured
1 min
not captured, before not captured
3 min
not captured, before not captured
0 min
not captured, before not captured
1 min
not captured, before 0 min
6 min
2 min
not captured, before not captured
0 min
1 min
not captured, before 2 min
1 min
not captured, before not captured
1 h 16 min
1 min
not captured, before not captured
1 h 11 min
2 min
not captured, before not captured
1 min
not captured, before not captured

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 3,488 raw blocks were merged into 450 continuous discharge periods (gaps under 15 min joined).

What the feed showed

FloodRadar's own record of every change of state Northumbrian Water's live feed has shown for this overflow, kept since : 5 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 5 states
SeenStatusSinceLatest discharge
Not discharging →
Discharging → no end yet
Not discharging →
Discharging → no end yet
Not discharging →

Rain nearby last 30 days

Nearest live rain gauge: Rainfall gauge nr Whitley Bay, 6.7 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
North Shields (Tide) · 3.1 km
Nearest rain gauge
Council area
North Tyneside District (B)
Site reference
NWL00712 · permit 235/1695
Coordinates
54.98865, -1.47486

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 Tynemouth 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 Tynemouth

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: © Northumbrian 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. 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.