Massive reduction in sewage spills entering Lancashire's rivers and waterways

United Utilities, the region’s water and wastewater company, is set to confirm a reduction in the number and duration of storm overflow operations across the North West in 2024, when official figures are released, by the Environment Agency (EA) later this month.

Last July, it was announced that UU was being investigated over sewage spills by industry regulator Ofwat - just months after it announced a £19 billion ‘replumbing’ plan to clean up rivers, beaches and lakes across the North West - the biggest investment of its kind in the UK.

Lancashire experienced more than 250,000 hours of raw sewage spills in 2023, with figures almost doubling from the previous year. By 2050 the goal is to ensure that storm overflows - the relief points that prevent sewers from backing up and flooding homes and businesses in heavy rain - each operate less than 10 times an year.

The figures

The figures are expected to show that EDM (event duration monitoring )submissions across the North West show a 31 per cent reduction in spill duration, or 205,236 fewer hours of spills, with the average number of spills from storm overflows estimated to fall by 20 per cent. That’s 19,720 fewer spills compared to the previous year.

The overall reduction in spills is despite 2024 being another extremely wet year recording the 8th wettest winter and 6th wettest spring on record.

Work

United Utilities have been carrying out several major projects to make the improvements. In the Windermere catchment UU commissioned an additional 2.6 million litres of storage – the equivalent of around 33,000 bathtubs or just over an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The additional storage has increased the amount of storm water the sites can store and then return for full treatment, reducing the number of times the storm overflows need to operate during periods of heavy rainfall.

In Leyand, £29m has been poured into Leyland’s Wastewater Treatment Works, increasing its capacity and introducing more storm water storage in order to reduce the number of times that storm overflows operate in periods of heavy rain.

Matt Hemmings, Chief Operating Officer at United Utilities, said: “We totally understand concerns about storm overflows. That's why we have the largest overflow investment programme of all companies over the next five years.

"Our teams right across Cumbria and the North West are working extremely hard on projects such as increasing storage on sites, designing bespoke solutions such as sustainable drainage schemes and using the latest innovation to treat wastewater to even higher standards. This investment is making a real difference.

"We are extremely ambitious about delivering change quickly, and we're making good progress as we embark on the largest ever investment programme in our infrastructure that will see the biggest overhaul of the region’s sewer network in a century."