Yorkshire Water reducing storm discharges into Ouse with £2.1m investment in Poppleton

Yorkshire Water is investing £2.1m to reduce storm overflow discharges into the river Ouse at Poppleton as it continues efforts to improve water quality.

Work is underway to build new underground wastewater storage in fields off Main Street in the village. Mott MacDonald Bentley is constructing an eight-metre deep tank that will hold more than 250,000 litres of wastewater during periods of prolonged or heavy rainfall, reducing the duration and frequency of discharges into the Ouse. 

The flows will be stored during the rainfall event and will be returned to the sewer network for full treatment via new pumps and rising main sewers being constructed as part of the project. 

A new surface water sewer will also be constructed to remove flows from the existing combined sewer network on Main Street. This will be 25m in length and will divert existing road gullies into the new surface water sewer to a ditch, further reducing the need for discharges from the combined sewer. 

Once completed, the work is expected to reduce discharges from Yorkshire Water’s Riverside Gardens storm overflow by more than 50%, helping to improve water quality in the Ouse. 

Omair Khan, project manager at Yorkshire Water, said: “We are committed to reducing the operation of storm overflows across Yorkshire and are investing £180m by April 2025 to tackle the issue and improve water quality in our rivers and at our coast.  

“The additional storage will hold stormwater during heavy or prolonged rainfall events, before returning it to the network and treatment works for full treatment once the rainfall event has passed. Ultimately, this will lead to a reduction in discharges to the river Ouse and help to improve water quality.” 

The project is part of a £180m investment project across Yorkshire by the end of April 2025 to reduce discharges from storm overflows. Yorkshire Water is also planning investment at a storm overflow on Coney Street, York, which will further reduce discharges to the Ouse.