The Ponds PS

Storm overflow run by Wessex Water, discharging into Tributary Of Abberd Brook.

Storm discharge at pumping station Chippenham constituency
Right now
Not discharging
Last discharge ended on (236 days ago).
Times are UK time. Company feed updated 6 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
37spills
at least 713 h discharging on 35 days · counted by us, not yet official · 2 discharges whose end the feed did not report (counted, no hours)
2025 official
70spills
1,501 h · −55% on 2024
Rank in Wessex Water
#43
of 1,285 overflows by 2025 spills (1 = most)
Monitor in 2025
98.8% working
Long-term average 100.8 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 and the live 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
84 spills · 1,839 hmonitor 99.2%
2022
24 spills · 376 hmonitor 100%
2023
133 spills · 2,700 hmonitor 99.9%
2024
154 spills · 3,161 hmonitor 95.1%
2025
70 spills · 1,501 hmonitor 98.8%
2026so far
37 spills · at least 713 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 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
Env Act (SODRP) investigation ongoing, UWWTR investigation ongoing
Improvement work
Operational improvement completed
Monitored since
2019
Water body
Abberd Bk - source to conf R Marden

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

292 discharge periods since 1 Jan 2020, 2 whose end the feed never gave. 292 of them come from Wessex Water's own event-duration-monitoring records (published on Stream, Jan 2020 – Mar 2026); the live feed adds anything after that. The official annual count is the figure to quote.

Show 30 earlier (of 292)
StartedEndedDischarge time
5 h 44 min
1 h 32 min
4 h 38 min
17 h 22 min
1 d 14 h
12 min
10 min
4 min
23 d 18 h
5 h 22 min
4 min
1 d 0 h
2 h 28 min
4 min
18 d 2 h
38 min
7 h 40 min
4 min
6 min
16 h 34 min
50 min
30 min
10 min
20 min
34 min
56 min
1 h 12 min
10 min
54 min
28 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 731 raw blocks were merged into 292 continuous discharge periods (gaps under 15 min joined).

What the feed showed

FloodRadar's own record of every change of state Wessex Water's live feed has shown for this overflow, kept since : 1 state. 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 1 states
SeenStatusSinceLatest discharge
Not discharging →

Rain nearby last 30 days

Nearest live rain gauge: Rainfall gauge nr Royal Wootton Bassett, 9.2 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
Calne (River Marden) · 3.9 km
Nearest rain gauge
Council area
Wiltshire
Wessex Water's own name for it
Compton Bassett The Pond
Site reference
WXW01125 · permit 103449
Coordinates
51.45485, -1.95376

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 Chippenham 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: © Wessex 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", 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.