Salisbury (Petersfinger)

Storm overflow run by Wessex Water, discharging into River Avon.

Storm tank at sewage treatment works Salisbury constituency
Right now
No live feed
Wessex Water does not publish a live status for this overflow; only the annual figures below are available.

"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
55spills
at least 1,047 h discharging on 53 days · counted by us, not yet official · 24 discharges whose end the feed did not report (counted, no hours)
2025 official
51spills
840 h · −59% on 2024
Rank in Wessex Water
#100
of 1,285 overflows by 2025 spills (1 = most)
Monitor in 2025
99.8% working
Long-term average 58.8 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 Wessex Water's monitor log. 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
14 spills · 166 hmonitor 99.2%
2022
4 spills · 32 hmonitor 100%
2023
102 spills · 1,767 hmonitor 100%
2024
123 spills · 2,563 hmonitor 100%
2025
51 spills · 840 hmonitor 99.8%
2026so far
55 spills · at least 1,047 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.

Downstream of this overflow

The next gauge downstream that the river map places is Downton Iron Bridge (River Avon), 8.7 km along the river.

Water-sampling points downstream

The nearest Environment Agency sampling points the river map places below Downton Iron Bridge. Points between this overflow and that gauge cannot be put in order with it on the map, so they are not listed.

A sample is dated: it is not the river now, and its results are on its own page. A sample taken after a discharge does not show that the discharge caused what was measured. Samples: Environment Agency Water Quality Archive, © Environment Agency and/or database right 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0.

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

High-spill review
Not Applicable - Ongoing investigation
Long-term review
Performance - GW inundation
Investigation
Operational investigation completed
Improvement work
Operational improvement completed
Monitored since
2021
Water body
Hampshire Avon (Middle)

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

173 discharge periods since 5 Jan 2025, 24 whose end the feed never gave. 168 of them come from Wessex Water's own event-duration-monitoring records (published on Stream, Jan 2025 – Mar 2026); this overflow has no live feed, so nothing after that log is held. The official annual count is the figure to quote.

Show 30 earlier (of 173)
StartedEndedDischarge time
30 min
25 min
34 min
23 min
2 h 26 min
27 min
35 min
42 min
33 min
46 min
48 min
37 min
29 min
1 h 21 min
29 min
39 min
46 min
3 h 0 min
8 min
27 min
39 min
1 min
1 h 49 min
8 h 8 min
2 min
43 min
1 h 0 min
22 min
23 min
49 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 858 raw blocks were merged into 173 continuous discharge periods (gaps under 15 min joined).

Rain nearby last 30 days

Nearest live rain gauge: Rainfall gauge nr Martin, 14.6 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
Salisbury Bourne (River Bourne) · 1.6 km
Nearest rain gauge
Council area
Wiltshire
Wessex Water's own name for it
Salisbury Petersfinger Southampton Road Storm Tank
Site reference
WXW00949 · permit 401382
Coordinates
51.05473, -1.76027

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 Salisbury 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 Salisbury

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.

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. 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.