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How are we reducing discharges our storm overflows?
We know our storm overflows operate more often than we, or our customers, would like, and reducing discharges is a priority for us.
However, replumbing the whole of Yorkshire is not a quick thing to do!
That said, we’re investing £1.5bn over the next five years to improve Yorkshire’s rivers and coastal waters.
Before we started on that, we completed more than 100 storm overflow projects between 2023 and March 2025, investing £180m to reduce discharges. Take a look at the map below to see some of the work we’ve completed already
As part of our largest ever environmental investment programme Yorkshire Water will be delivering a further £1.5bn of investment over the next 5 years towards significantly reducing the use of storm overflows across the entire Yorkshire region.
Our colleagues are working with industry experts on innovative new solutions to protect our rivers and coastal waters.
These teams are working to build a number of clever and sustainable engineering solutions which will help cut down how often storm overflows are used to help improve the health of rivers and coastal waters, ensuring a thriving Yorkshire for future generations.
You can also check out our live storm overflow map to see all our investment projects.
What are these solutions?
We can’t just remove storm overflows from our network as this would cause a flooding risk (and we’d need to find somewhere for all the rainwater to go). That’s why we’re looking at reducing the number of times they’re needed by deploying these innovative and resilient engineering solutions:
- surface water sewers to separate out rainwater and divert it to the nearest watercourse
- underground storage tanks to hold the stormwater
- nature-based solutions
- sustainable drainage system
Surface water sewers
Surface water sewers divert rainwater into a dedicated sewer which is separate to the combined sewer to reduce strain on the sewer network. This helps prevent the wastewater network from becoming overwhelmed during periods of bad weather and means that rainwater can be redirected back into waterways without having to go through our wastewater treatment process.
Underground storage tanks
Storage tanks can store excess wastewater, meaning when there’s heavy rainfall, we’ll be able to hold more excess wastewater back and reduce reliance on storm overflows during periods of bad weather.
Nature based solutions
Nature based solutions include full treatment and phosphorous-specific wetlands.
These wetlands are made up from a number of interconnected ponds filled with a variety of wetland plants that naturally treat wastewater by removing pollutants. Phosphorus wetlands go a step further, using specific plants that can absorb and break down phosphorus, helping to filter wastewater in a sustainable and low-carbon way while also providing a habitat for wildlife to thrive.
Once the water is treated it drains back into a local watercourse, removing excess strain from the sewer network.
Sustainable drainage systems
Sustainable drainage systems include permeable flooring, swales and rain gardens.
These sustainable drainage systems help slow the flow of rainwater in built-up areas where concrete and tarmac dominate. Because these hard surfaces don’t absorb water, rain runs off into drains, which can put extra pressure on the sewer network. These sustainable drainage system solutions ease that strain by capturing rainwater in a more natural, sustainable, and low-carbon way.
£1.3m sustainable drainage project to reduce storm overflows into Muster Brook
£1.4m investment to further reduce storm overflows into river Wharfe
£500k investment to reduce storm overflows into Bain and Ure rivers
£2.4m investment to reduce storm overflows into river Dearne
£1.6m investment to reduce storm overflows into river Derwent
Wetland planned for South Elmsall wastewater treatment works
Two York city centre storm overflows to be improved
£1.3m investment to reduce storm overflows in Whitby
Yorkshire Water to reduce storm overflows in Scarborough with £2.8m investment
Letter to Yorkshire Water customers from Nicola Shaw, CEO of Yorkshire Water