Watchet Pumping Station Overflow

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

Storm discharge at pumping station Tiverton and Minehead constituency
Right now
Not discharging
Last discharge ended on (124 days ago).
Times are UK time. Company feed updated 5 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
8spills
14 h discharging on 8 days · counted by us, not yet official
2025 official
11spills
14 h · −48% on 2024
Rank in Wessex Water
#647
of 1,285 overflows by 2025 spills (1 = most)
Monitor in 2025
100% working
Long-term average 14.2 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 official figure is published next spring.

2021
9 spills · 2.7 hmonitor 98.9%
2022
10 spills · 14 hmonitor 100%
2023
22 spills · 17 hmonitor 100%
2024
21 spills · 20 hmonitor 100%
2025
11 spills · 14 hmonitor 100%
2026so far
8 spills · 14 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

Wessex Water runs 2 other overflows within 300 m that also discharge into Washford River. They share the sewer and the storm, so one outlet's figures are only part of what reaches the water.

0m Tunnel Pumping StationWXW01160Watchet Market Street (Tunnel) 19spills in 2025
103m 7 Mill Street CSOWXW00048Watchet Mill Street So 44spills in 2025

This overflow (Watchet Market St): 11 spills in 2025. Distances are between the published outlet points. The names in brackets are Wessex Water's own, from its return.

What the 2025 return says

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

High-spill review
High spill threshold not met
Long-term review
Performance - SW Infiltration
Investigation
Env Act (SODRP) investigation ongoing, UWWTR investigation ongoing, Operational investigation completed
Improvement work
Operational improvement completed
Monitored since
2020
Water body
Not part of a river WB 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

37 discharge periods since 4 Jan 2025. 37 of them come from Wessex Water's own event-duration-monitoring records (published on Stream, Jan 2025 – Jun 2026); the live feed adds anything after that. The official annual count is the figure to quote.

Show 27 earlier
StartedEndedDischarge time
36 min
23 min
12 min
24 min
25 min
24 min
1 h 12 min
10 min
9 min
1 h 30 min
18 min
17 min
26 min
8 min
5 min
20 min
6 min
16 min
13 min
3 h 27 min
2 h 21 min
13 min
18 min
11 min
10 min
7 min
16 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 59 raw blocks were merged into 37 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 Nettlecombe, 7.3 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
Swill Bridge (Doniford Stream) · 1.9 km
Nearest rain gauge
Council area
Somerset
Wessex Water's own name for it
Watchet Market St
Site reference
WXW01193 · permit 101159
Coordinates
51.18282, -3.33202

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 Tiverton and Minehead 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.