TWO of South West Water’s highest spilling sites in 2023, located in Torridge, have seen a turn around in fortune thanks to thousands of pounds of investment.

Stibb Cross and Langtree wastewater treatment works were two of the company’s highest spilling sites in 2023 and were prioritised for investment as part of South West Water’s storm overflow reduction programme.

South West Water has since invested £260,000 in North Devon as part of its focus on reducing the use of storm overflows across the region.

The two sites had more than 400 spills in 2023, however recent works in the catchments have helped reportedly drive down spills accordingly to South West Water, which says there has been a ‘90 per cent reduction in spills in the seven months since the work was completed compared with the same period last year’.

Earlier this year, South West Water’s teams surveyed almost 1.5km of sewers, which revealed that groundwater was getting into the pipes and putting unnecessary strain on the two local treatment works.

The team then carried out a programme of sewer improvements to stop this water finding its way into the network, which involved relining more than 650 metres of sewer across the two areas.

They also completed a number of smaller repairs to parts of the network and made improvement to eight manhole covers where surface water was able to enter the sewers.

Jay Harris, director of wastewater operations, said: “Stibb Cross and Langtree were two of our highest spilling sites in 2023 and they are under two miles apart. It was clear that we needed to take action to tackle spills at both sites.

“Through a process of detailed investigation and rehabilitation works, our teams have put in place solutions that are already delivering improvements that will benefit the environment in the area for years to come.”