Ongoing sewage overflow spill at St Leonards and Bexhill

The outflow started at 3:41am today (Thursday, April 7) and is still ongoing, according to Southern Water.

A spokesperson said “There is an ongoing compliant storm event at St Leonards and Bexhill as the area has received heavy rain since 1am.

“It cannot be set to ‘reviewed’ whilst it’s still spilling.”

St Leonards and Bexhill are both used as outfalls for sewage.

Before this latest release, sewage was last released on March 30, 2022.

Outfall sites like St Leonards and Bexhill are used to dispose of sewage to stop overflow after heavy rainfall.

According to the government there are around 15,000 storm overflows in England, and in 2020 there were over 400,000 sewage discharges - totalling over 3 million hours.

Southern Water was fined £90m last summer for deliberately dumping raw sewage into protected seas for financial gain but outfalls are currently a legally accepted part of the sewage system.

Southern Water, which announced a £138.8m profit last year, says outfalls are part of the design of the sewers and are regulated by the Environment Agency, and are used in areas where the sewers were built to carry both wastewater and rainwater away from communities.

Clean Water Action, an environmental action group, has campaigned against Southern Water - notably in St Leonards last year after a major sewage leak.

Becca Horn, member of Clean Water Action, said after the leak on March 30: “Once again Southern Water has been dumping untreated sewage into our seas. This is the second alert in as many weeks for St Leonards and Bexhill.

“It goes to show they are failing at providing the required capacity even in normal times.

“After decades of underfunding - with profits maintaining shareholders’ purses instead of our pipes - our sewage systems are in crisis. 80% by 2030 is neither good enough nor fast enough.

“They have promised to invest £2bn by 2025, but we have yet to hear their spending plan other than the £12.8m they announced they plan to spend on advertising to educate the public on saving water

“Southern Water must be held accountable for their continued pollution of our precious waterways.”

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