Yorkshire Water invests £6 m to protect river Don in Rotherham

Yorkshire Water is investing £6m in two adjacent Rotherham based projects to help improve water quality in the river Don.   

Construction partner, MGroup, is due to start a £4.75 million scheme at Clifton Park combined sewer overflow (CSO), to reduce storm overflow discharges into the river Don.  

The project will see the construction of a new 345m³ underground storage tank in a field beneath Clifton Park. The tank will store 345,000 litres of excess wastewater during periods of heavy rainfall, before returning it back into waterways once it has been treated.  

On completion, the upgrade is expected to reduce annual storm overflow discharges from Clifton Park CSO by around 72%, cutting the annual average from 37 to fewer than 10 per year. 

A further £1.25m project to separate surface water from the wastewater network is planned at nearby Herringthorpe Playing Fields, helping to reduce the amount of rainfall entering and overloading the sewer system. 

The investment forms part of Yorkshire Water's wider programme to improve river health across the region and is one of 27 storm overflow reduction projects planned across Rotherham before April 2030, representing a combined investment of £73.5 million. 

Vikki Overend, project manager at Yorkshire Water, said: “We know that reducing storm discharges and maintaining healthy waterways are important to our local communities which is why we're continuing to invest in projects that reduce storm overflow discharges and improve the resilience of our wastewater network. 

"This investment at Clifton Park will help us capture and store excess flows during heavy rainfall, significantly reducing the use of the storm overflow and supporting our efforts to improve the health of the river Don. It is one of a number of a projects we're delivering across Rotherham such as Treeton Mill Lane and Clifton Lord Street.” 

Yorkshire Water and its partners are working closely with local highways to keep disruption to a minimum. The project is expected to take around 18 months to complete.