Northumbrian Water storm overflows

1,551 storm overflows · 1,500 with a live status feed · regulated by the Environment Agency.

Discharging now
0
of 1,490 overflows reporting live
Spills in 2025
27,722
official, from 1,547 monitored overflows
Hours in 2025
123k
total discharge time, 80 h per overflow
Average per overflow
17.9
spills each in 2025 · -32% on 2024 (26.3)

Discharging now

None reported discharging in the latest feed update. "Not discharging" means the monitors report no discharge — not that the water is clean.

Year by year

Spills reported across all of Northumbrian Water's monitored overflows.

20211,283 sites
30,450 spills · 169k h
20221,305 sites
25,306 spills · 82k h
20231,413 sites
41,382 spills · 244k h
20241,551 sites
40,792 spills · 247k h
20251,547 sites
27,722 spills · 123k h

More overflows were monitored each year (1,283 in 2021, 1,547 in 2025), so part of any rise is more monitors, not only more spilling.

Official Environment Agency Event Duration Monitoring returns, 12/24-hour counting method (the first 12 hours of a discharge count as one spill, each further 24 hours as one more). Earlier years are matched to today's overflows by name and location, because the EA's site IDs changed between returns; a site that could not be matched is left out of that year rather than guessed.

Most spills in 2025

The overflows that spilled most often. A red tag means discharging right now.

1
Cotherstone STW River Balder
1612,197 h
2
Glasshouse Street PS River Tyne, North Sea
1281,354 h
3
121491 h
4
Howdon STW River Tyne Saline Estuary
1201,238 h
5
Otterburn STW River Rede
1201,816 h
6
Howdon STW River Tyne Saline Estuary
113795 h
7
113587 h
8
Felton STW Coquet
1091,454 h
9
Western Area STW River Wear
1071,822 h
10
Allendale STW River East Allen
1061,865 h
11
Bluehouse Gill CSO Bluehouse Gill
104931 h
12
Wagonway Road SPS River Tyne Saline Estuary
1001,085 h
13
Hamsterley STW Linburn Beck
97365 h
14
Newfield STW River Wear
96698 h
15
Graythorp STW Greatham Creek/seaton Channel
941,349 h
16
91522 h
17
90467 h
18
89167 h
19
88165 h
20
Cargo Fleet SPS Ormsby Beck
87277 h
21
Sedgeletch STW Herrington Burn/moors Burn
87283 h
22
South Shore Road CSO Tyne Saline Estuary
86248 h
23
Nenthead STW River Nent
84986 h
24
Milfield Sewage Treatment Works Unnamed Trib River Till
831,193 h
25
821,066 h

Rivers and seas it discharges into most

Spills in 2025 from Northumbrian Water's overflows, by receiving water (names grouped approximately).

1
North Sea 89 overflows
1,8068,381 h
2
River Wear 52 overflows
1,4058,444 h
3
River Tyne 56 overflows
9923,208 h
4
River Tees 45 overflows
8434,235 h
5
River Tyne Saline Estuary 28 overflows
6784,198 h
6
Tyne Estuary 40 overflows
6681,198 h
7
Wear 31 overflows
3952,022 h
8
River Browney 10 overflows
3711,555 h
9
River Tweed 23 overflows
369664 h
10
River Blyth 15 overflows
3572,512 h

Concerned about an overflow?

Report pollution you can see to the Environment Agency on 0800 80 70 60 — they log and investigate incidents. Complaints about a company's service go to the company first.

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. FloodRadar republishes the monitors' status and the published figures; it does not measure discharges itself, and a monitor reports a discharge, not its volume or its cause.