Southern Water looking at green storm overflow systems

Southern Water plans to replace it's old storm overflow infrastructure with environmentally friendly alternative

Southern Water wants to work with local authorities to find environmentally friendly ways to prevent coastal sewage spills, councillors have been told.

Dr Nick Mills, head of the company's Overflow Task Force, outlined the plans to Brighton and Hove's Health, Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

In July 2021 Southern Water was fined for pumping sewage into the sea.

Dr Mills said told the committee those events were "shocking and the fine was correct".

He said Southern Water wanted to reduce storm overflow discharges by 80% by 2030, and were looking at environmentally friendly ways to do this.

"We won't just invest in concrete, which we've traditionally done as water companies," he said.

Previous incidents had been caused by the outdated combined sewage system, with discharges happening automatically during heavy storms to prevent flooding inland.

In October 2021 storms damaged a pumping station in Kent, causing 14 of Margate's beaches to be closed, three months after a lightning strike caused similar problems in the same area.

A sewage spillage caused the closure of beaches between West Bay and Joss Bay in Thanet in June 2021

One way forward could be to work with councils to plant trees, install water butts and stop surfaces which soak up water being replaced by material that does not.

"Driveways are a nemesis for us, often built without planning permission," Dr Mills explained.

"You have whole streets originally designed with front lawns that are now paved over, which double the amount of water hitting the sewer system when it rains."

From next year new technology called Beachbouy will be piloted to monitor seawater quality in real time, rather than waiting days for samples to be analysed.

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Dr Mills also reassured councillors the culture at Southern Water had changed.

"It was shocking what happened, completely unacceptable and the fine was correct" he said.

"There's a lot more process, more internal audit to check that things are being followed.

"There's still lots of things to improve in terms of our performance and the storm overflows is one of them. Many of the things we're doing here are industry leading."

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