Yorkshire Water is investing £480,000 to reduce discharges from a storm overflow in Northallerton. 

Work on Springwell Lane, Bishopsgarth to disconnect surface water from the road surfaces from entering the combined sewer has begun.

Rather than entering the sewer and mixing with the waste water, it will be returned directly to the watercourse, helping to reduce waste water discharges.

Reducing the amount of rainfall entering the sewers during prolonged or heavy rainfall will lower the number of discharges into Willow Beck, a tributary of the River Wiske, by 10 per cent.  

A new interactive map with the live status of the 2,180 overflows it operates across Yorkshire has recently been launched with data updating every 15 minutes providing up-to-date information. This will help those looking to understand the impact of Yorkshire Water’s operation within their areas.  

Project manager at Yorkshire Water, Omair Khan, said: “Reducing the amount of surface water running off residents’ roofs, roads and pavements into our combined sewer systems is vital to cutting the number of discharges from storm overflows.

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"This project upstream of the storm overflow will ultimately reduce the frequency and duration of discharges.  

“We are currently in the process of delivering a £180m investment in storm overflows across the region by April 2025.

"This investment is the first step in a long-term programme to reduce several discharges and we recently submitted plans to Ofwat that outline more than £1 billion investment to reduce overflows across the region between 2025 and 2030.”