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Sewage spills

How often Yorkshire Water's storm overflows spilled into rivers, drains and the sea in Hull and the East Riding in 2025.

Official Environment Agency figures, 2025

Hull and the East Riding

4,240

spills counted

from 142 of 167 monitored overflows

29,351

hours of spilling in total

About 1,223 days, added up across every overflow

overflows spilled 40 times or more

The government's target for 2050 is an average of no more than 10 a year

No spills1 to 9 spills10 to 3940 or more

Tap an overflow for its name, where it spills to, and its count for 2025. Bigger circles spilled for longer. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Official Environment Agency figures, 2025

Overflow	Spills into	Spills	Time spilling
Hull sewage works	River Humber	116	65 days
Atwick No.2 sewage works	Tributary of Stream Dyke	87	63 days
Hollym sewage works	Tributary of Winestead Drain	101	52 days
Melton sewage works	River Humber	245	51 days
Stamford Bridge North pumping station	River Derwent	62	46 days
Skeffling sewage works	Tributary of Skeffling Clough Drain	49	38 days
Bishop Wilton sewage works	Bishop Wilton Beck	65	33 days
Ellerker sewage works	Crabley Creek	76	33 days
Barmby Moor pumping station overflow	Unnamed Tributary of Black Dike	94	33 days
Kilham sewage works	Lowthorpe Beck	43	31 days
New Ellerby pumping station	A Tributary of Kelwell Drain	58	26 days
Howden sewage works	River Ouse (tidal)	74	25 days
Goole Carr Lane pumping station	River Ouse	77	25 days
North Ferriby sewage works	River Humber	108	24 days
Lelley sewage works	Tributary of Northfield Drain	39	23 days

Names are the Environment Agency's own for each permitted outlet. Some sites have more than one outlet, each counted separately.

84 spills from Flamborough sewage works (Danes Dyke, Flamborough; Flamborough South Landing)
81 spills from Bridlington sewage works (Bridlington South Beach)
63 spills from Hornsea pumping station (Hornsea)
41 spills from Sands Lane pumping station (Bridlington North Beach)
39 spills from Springfield Avenue 2 overflow (Bridlington South Beach)
37 spills from Belgrave Road Bridge overflow (Bridlington South Beach)
35 spills from Bempton pumping station (Danes Dyke, Flamborough)
30 spills from Flamborough pumping station (Flamborough South Landing)
27 spills from Bridlington sewage works (Bridlington South Beach; Wilsthorpe)
13 spills from Bessingby Road overflow (Bridlington South Beach)
12 spills from Carnaby (village) pumping station (Wilsthorpe)
12 spills from Hilderthorpe Road overflow (Bridlington South Beach)
9 spills from Scarborough Road Brid 2 overflow (Bridlington South Beach)
8 spills from Memorial Gardens pumping station (Withernsea)
4 spills from St Annes Road overflow (Bridlington North Beach)
2 spills from Carnaby pumping station (Wilsthorpe)
2 spills from Water Lane Flamborough overflow (Flamborough South Landing)
2 spills from Limekiln Lane overflow (Bridlington North Beach)

Official Environment Agency figures, 2025

23.6

spills per overflow, on average

Average of England's water companies: 20.5▼ Worse than the average

41%

of its overflows spilled 10 times or fewer

Average: 49%▼ Worse than the average

51,431

spills across Yorkshire

285,931 hours, from 2,176 overflows

Yorkshire Water had the third highest number of spills per overflow of the 10 water and sewerage companies.

Storm overflows are legal in heavy rain. They stop sewers backing up into homes and streets. The concern is overflows that spill often, or when it has not rained much.
What spills is mostly rainwater mixed with sewage, and at sewage works it has usually been screened or settled first. It is not the same as raw sewage, but it is not clean either.
A wet year means more spills. Counts go up and down with the weather, so one year alone does not show whether things are improving.
How spills are counted. Any spilling within a 12-hour block counts as one spill, and each further 24 hours counts as another.
Monitors are not always working. An overflow whose monitor was off for part of the year may have spilled more than is shown.
The area is drawn by hand along the edge of Hull and the East Riding, so an overflow right on the boundary could be in or out by mistake.