£4.2m River Aire storm overflow project underway in Morley

Yorkshire Water has started work to build an underground storage tank in Morley, as part of its £1.5bn storm overflow discharge reduction programme to reduce wastewater entering local watercourses. 

Contract partners Ward & Burke are constructing a 2000m3 tank, which will store up to two million litres of excess wastewater and rainwater flows, in a field off Dewsbury Road. 

Storage tanks build additional capacity into the combined sewer network, which transports both wastewater and rainwater. By holding excess flows during periods of bad weather, they prevent combined storm overflows (CSOs) from discharging into local watercourses. Flows will be sent for full treatment when capacity in the network has returned to normal levels. 

The £4.2m project in Morley, which is expected to take a year, will reduce discharges from Wide Lane Woodlands CSO into the River Aire.  

Dan Rhodes, project manager at Yorkshire Water, said: "This is one of fourteen storm overflow projects we've started since April 2025 in Leeds, where we have a target of reducing the number of discharges by 72% by 2030. We're already delivering on this commitment, with completed projects in Beeston and Stourton." 

Other projects underway in Leeds include: 

• Wyther Lane, Kirkstall 
• Kirkstall Educational Cricket Club, Kirkstall 
• Village Place, Burley 
• Spen Lane, Headingley 
• Fraser Avenue, Horsforth 
• Sussex Avenue near Hunslet 
• Jack Lane, also near Hunslet 
• Claremont, Horsforth 
• Canal Road, Armley 
• Temple Avenue, near Temple Newsam 
• South Drive, Farsley 

Elsewhere in Yorkshire, there are schemes underway in York, Sheffield, Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale and across North Yorkshire. 

Storm overflows are designed to act as a relief valve for the combined sewer network, which carries both wastewater and surface water, during periods of heavy or prolonged rainfall. They discharge when the system is at capacity to prevent flows backing up and flooding homes and gardens. 

Across Yorkshire, the need for storm overflows to operate will be reduced by building new: 

• Surface water sewers, to separate surface water and wastewater so that wastewater networks aren’t impacted by bad weather 
• Underground storage tanks, to build additional capacity into the network 
• Nature-based solutions, to build additional capacity into the network 
• Sustainable drainage systems, to slow the flow of surface water into the combined network 

The storm overflow project is part of Yorkshire Water’s £8.3bn investment into its services and the environment over the next five years.