South West Water has met the deadline. So it’s going to get worse before it gets better! – Owl

The milestone of almost 100 per cent monitoring on storm overflows is likely to mean the number of spills will look worse when new figures are published next March, potentially posing a headache for ministers in the run-up to an election.

Adam Vaughan www.thetimes.co.uk

England’s era of sewage spill blindspots has drawn to a close. Water company data released to The Times shows that by the end of December, monitoring will be in place for all bar one of the 15,000 pipes that act as relief valves for England’s sewer network.

Known as storm overflows, the pipes are designed to release raw sewage into rivers and seas only during heavy rainfall to avoid it backing up into homes. Water companies face a legal deadline of December 31 to install “event duration monitoring” equipment to track when the discharges stop and start during overflows.

Environmental information regulation requests revealed that six of England’s nine main wastewater companies were still striving to install the final monitors this month. The other three, Southern Water, South West Water and Severn Trent, had all met the deadline.

By mid-December Wessex Water had five remaining and Northumbrian Water had 11. Another three companies had one monitor each to complete. These five said the final monitors would be in place by the end the month.

The not-for-profit operator Welsh Water, which maintains more than 100 storm overflows in England, could not guarantee the remaining unmonitored overflow pipe would be ready in time. This outstanding pipe is in Hereford, located by a busy A-road, and the monitor work will require temporary three-way traffic lights that are not yet in place.

A spokesman for Water UK, which represents the industry, said: “England is the first country in the world to achieve full monitoring of all 15,000 of its storm overflows. This information will allow the sector to target investment at those sites that most urgently need improvements.”

The trade association said that the installations were only a “first step” and that its members were planning to spend £11 billion by 2030, which it hoped would mean 140,000 fewer spills a year.

The milestone of almost 100 per cent monitoring on storm overflows is likely to mean the number of spills will look worse when new figures are published next March, potentially posing a headache for ministers in the run-up to an election.

Data showed there were 300,000 ­releases of raw sewage, lasting 1.7 million hours, in the previous year. The government said the figure, which was a small reduction on the year before, was only down because it had been a dry year. This year has been wetter and there are now more than 600 extra monitors than when the last statistics were published, implying an increase.

The spills are one of the most visible examples of water pollution, and have been the target of campaigners angry at rivers being spoiled. While discharges are only meant to happen during rainfall, there is growing evidence that companies are illegally spilling on dry days.

The government has set targets for water companies for the 2030s to curb the spills, with 2050 being the deadline for effectively ending spills for good. The Times’s award-winning Clean it Up campaign has called for earlier targets and faster investment to tackle the problem affecting British waterways.