SOUTH West Water has finished improvements on Dartmoor as part of its work to reduce the use of storm overflows across the region.

Horrabridge Wastewater Treatment Works, in West Devon, was one of the South West’s highest spilling storm overflows in 2023 however the organisation has said that its investment is already helping to deliver improvements to the site.

South West Water’s teams carried out investigations and surveyed over 1.5 kilometres of pipework at the site. This revealed that surface water and groundwater was finding its way into local sewers and putting additional pressure on the treatment works during wet weather.

To prevent this from happening South West Water installed a protective lining to 880 metres of sewer in the area and carried out repairs across the local network, including upgrades to around 30 manholes.

Alongside this, work was also carried out at the treatment works in order to upgrade the pumps and add a second storage tank to increase the site’s capacity during periods of heavy rainfall.

As a result, there has only been one spill from the storm overflow at Horrabridge Wastewater Treatment Works since January 1, compared to 32 spills in the same period 12 months prior.

Jess Cox, South West Water’s area operations manager, said: “We’ve carried out a significant amount of work here in Horrabridge and we’re already seeing positive results. As someone who lives locally to the area I’m really proud of the work we’ve done here to help protect the environment long into the future.”

South West Water’s work in Horrabridge forms part of wider plans to become the first water company to meet the government’s target of achieving less than 10 spills per overflow per year – a decade ahead of target.