Fresh data from the Environment Agency has highlighted the scale of sewage overspills affecting Wells in 2022.

The data reveals that the Wessex Water network, which is responsible for wastewater management in the area, activated 1,837 times within the Mendip district. Wells features prominently among the most affected locations.

Wells bears the brunt

The River Sheppey, a watercourse in the vicinity of Wells, has experienced frequent sewage spillages. Specifically, the Wookey Water Recycling Centre has reported 63 incidents of untreated sewage being released into the river, amounting to 1,106 hours of discharge.

Environmental specialists have indicated that these levels could result in long-term ecological consequences and pose public health risks.

Rising public concerns

The Rivers Trust said it was particularly concerned by storm overflows being used during hot periods – a risk as England faces a heatwave this week.

Tessa Wardley, director of communications and advocacy at the charity, said: "Discharging untreated sewage in dry weather is bad for both human health and river health – lower river flows mean more concentrated pollutants at a time when more people want to enjoy their rivers."

"Although a problem in their own right, these discharges are also the 'canary in the coalmine' pointing to greater problems in our sewerage and river systems. This could be blockages in the system, groundwater seeping into broken pipes, misconnections, or just poor management choices," she added.

She urged "robust, urgent action" on sewage and river management to help tackle the climate crisis and threats to biodiversity.

Government and corporate accountability

Water Minister Rebecca Pow has recognised the gravity of sewage spillage across England and outlined a £56 billion infrastructure programme to address the issue. However, there is ongoing debate about the timeline for improvements specific to Wells. Local MP James Heappey is facing calls to advocate for local solutions in addition to broader national strategies.

What Wessex Water have to say

As storm overflows should only operate during periods of intense rainfall, any foul water released from them will be very dilute because of the large volumes of rainwater flowing through the sewers, so they have very little environmental impact.The Environment Agency is responsible for river and bathing water quality and it regulates intermittent discharges from storm overflows through environmental permits. The main polluting load of the contents of a sewer should flow to the treatment centre, allowing very dilute sewage to overflow when the sewer capacity is exceeded. When storm overflows operate, the dilute sewage contains faecal bacteria, but their operation does not mean a bathing water's quality is necessarily unfit for swimming. Bacteria generally do not survive long outside host organisms and are especially fragile when exposed to sunlight in seawater. - Wessex Water

Matt Wheeldon, Wessex Water's director of infrastructure development, said: "We know our customers care passionately about protecting watercourses, whether or not they use them for swimming or recreation, and we share their passion.

"We would love to stop all storm overflow discharges immediately but unfortunately there is no quick fix – eliminating them completely would mean re-plumbing a sewerage system which has been built in this way for over 150 years.

"The solutions we're rolling out include separating out rainwater to stop it entering sewers and constructing large storage tanks to contain the combined rain and sewage for later treatment."

Wessex Water has developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-led app which predicts bacteria levels using other parameters that can be continuously obtained from sensors within bathing or recreational waters.

Mr Wheeldon added: "We've already used AI to provide real-time water quality information at Warleigh Weir, near Bath, Baltic Wharf in Bristol and in Poole Harbour where we are providing water quality forecasts for the shellfishery and recreational businesses."