Yorkshire Water invests £700k to reduce storm overflows at Elvington

Work is underway to reduce the number of storm discharges into Elvington Beck, a tributary of the river Derwent, as Yorkshire Water invests £700k to increase storage at the existing storm overflow at Elvington.

Contract partners, Sapphire Utility Solution (SUS), began working on site in November to install a new 50m³ underground storage tank at Church Lane, adjacent to the existing water pumping station. This new facility will store excess water from heavy or prolonged rainfall, before returning it for treatment, once the weather event has passed.

This is the last of a trio of projects in the area to reduce storm overflows and improve water quality at Elvington Beck and the river Derwent, including:

• £1.3m investment at Ellerton to construct a new surface water sewer
• £300k at Kexby to create additional storage to stop storm discharges

Lumi Ajayi, project manager, Yorkshire Water, said: “This brings to a close a number of investment infrastructure projects in and around Elvington designed to improve water quality in the local area. They form part of our wider £180m investment to reduce discharge from storm overflows going into local watercourses before April 2025.

“We are planning our largest ever environmental investment between 2025 and 2030 which includes £1bn to continue to reduce the impact of storm overflows on our watercourses.”

While there will be some disruption to residents and local traffic, Yorkshire Water is working with the local authority highways team to minimise disruption as much as possible.  The project is due to complete in February 2025.