Stand on the cliffs at Whitburn on a clear day and it is easy to understand why people love this coastline.
To the north, seals sometimes haul out on the rocks below Souter Lighthouse and along the beaches of South Tyneside and County Durham. Cormorants dry their wings on the rocks while oystercatchers patrol the shoreline. Gannets plunge into the sea in search of fish. During the summer months, dolphins are frequently seen offshore and, on occasion, whales pass through local waters.
To the south, the beaches of Seaburn and Roker stretch towards Sunderland. Families walk along the sand. Surfers wait for waves. Swimmers enter the water year round. It is a coastline many people would describe as one of the North East’s greatest treasures.
What most people never see is the network of pipes, pumping stations and overflow systems operating behind the scenes.
Sadly, what many people do not realise is that despite years of promises, legal challenges and investment, untreated sewage continues to enter the North Sea and the River Wear from sites across the Sunderland coastline.
This investigation examines publicly available monitoring data, planning documents, regulatory records and environmental reports to understand what is happening, what questions remain unanswered and whether the current system is fit for purpose.
A problem that refuses to go away
At Seaburn, signs proudly display an “Excellent” bathing water classification.
Most visitors would reasonably assume that means everything is working as it should.
Yet just a few miles away at Whitburn Steel Pumping Station, untreated sewage continues to be discharged into the North Sea through a long sea outfall extending offshore.
Environment Agency records show that in 2021 approximately 820,000 tonnes of untreated sewage were discharged from Whitburn Steel. In 2023 despite years of investment and regulatory attention, approximately 680,000 tonnes were still being released.
This is not a newly discovered issue.
In 2012, the European Court of Justice ruled that discharges associated with the Whitburn system breached European wastewater legislation. Northumbrian Water was required to improve the situation.
More than a decade later, discharges are still occurring.
The obvious question is: why?
A Victorian network facing modern demands
Much of Sunderland’s sewer network has its origins in the Victorian era.
Although the system has been expanded and upgraded over time, wastewater from Whitburn, Seaburn, Roker and large parts of Sunderland still follows a broadly similar route through a chain of pumping stations before eventually reaching Hendon Sewage Treatment Works for treatment.
The story emerging from the data is surprisingly simple: parts of Sunderland’s sewer network appear to be struggling to cope with the volume of wastewater they are being asked to carry.
When the network becomes overloaded, combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and pumping station overflows can activate, allowing untreated sewage and stormwater to bypass parts of the treatment process and enter rivers or the sea.
The Environment Agency’s Event Duration Monitoring (EDM) system records when these discharges occur and how long they last.
Those records reveal hundreds of discharge events across Sunderland’s network every year.
What the Monitoring Data Shows
Key Sunderland Sewage Discharges
| Site | 2023 Spills | 2023 Hours | 2024 Spills | 2024 Hours |
| Hendon Sewage Treatment Works | 119 | 633 hrs | 103 | 553 hrs |
| Back Lodge Terrace CSO | 63 | 236.5 hrs | 38 | 142 hrs |
| Castletown Way Pumping Station | 59 | 258 hrs | 59 | 277 hrs |
| Mainsforth Terrace CSO | 50 | 98 hrs | 35 | 129 hrs |
| Whitburn Steel Pumping Station | 31 | 120 hrs | 12 | 42 hrs |
| Gill Cemetery CSO (Monitor 1) | 30 | 20.7 hrs | NO DATA | NO DATA |
| Gill Cemetery CSO (Monitor 2) | NO DATA | NO DATA | 23 | 20 hrs |
| St Peter’s Pumping Station Outfall North | NO DATA | NO DATA | 16 | 96 hrs |
The figures show a network experiencing repeated discharge events across multiple sites.
Hendon Sewage Treatment Works alone recorded 119 spill events in 2023 lasting a combined 633 hours more than 26 days of discharge.
Castletown Way recorded 59 spills in both 2023 and 2024.
Whitburn Steel recorded 31 spills in 2023.
These are not isolated incidents. They are recurring features of the network.
Yet what stands out almost as much as the spills themselves is the absence of data at some of the network’s most important locations.
The missing data
Perhaps the most important finding from this investigation is not what the data shows, but what it does not show.
St Peter’s Pumping Station Outfall North is a key link in Sunderland’s wastewater network. It helps transfer flows from the northern catchment towards Hendon Sewage Treatment Works.
Yet no publicly available EDM data appears to exist for 2023.
That absence is particularly striking because 2023 was one of the worst years on record elsewhere in the network.
The position at Gill Cemetery is equally unusual.
Two separate monitors appear to exist at the same location. One records data in 2023 but not in 2024. The other records data in 2024 but not in 2023.
As a result there is currently no year in which both monitors appear together in the public record.
There may be entirely reasonable explanations for these gaps. Monitoring equipment can fail. Systems can be upgraded. Reporting methods can change.
However, transparency matters.
If public confidence is to be maintained, questions about missing information deserve clear answers.
Not a maintenance problem: a capacity problem
One of the most revealing findings comes from Northumbrian Water’s own submissions to the Environment Agency.
For overflows at Gill Cemetery CSO, the cause was recorded as:
“Not Asset Maintenance – Hydraulic Capacity.” That distinction is important.
A maintenance problem suggests equipment has failed. A hydraulic capacity problem suggests the system itself is struggling to accommodate the flows entering it.
In simple terms there may be more wastewater entering parts of the network than those parts were designed to handle.
Solving that type of problem is not straightforward. It usually requires major investment, additional storage, larger pipes or treatment upgrades.
Ruled illegal, but still happening
Concerns surrounding Whitburn are not new.
In 2012, the European Court of Justice found that the discharges associated with the Whitburn system breached European wastewater legislation.
Compliance deadlines followed.
Investment programmes followed.
Regulatory scrutiny followed.
Yet discharge events continue to be recorded.
In February 2024, concerns about the unresolved situation were still being referenced within planning and regulatory discussions.
For local residents, the obvious question remains, when will compliance finally be achieved?
What does “Excellent” really mean?
Northumbrian Water often points to the fact that Seaburn and Roker continue to achieve Excellent bathing water status. That might be true, but it is also important to understand what those ratings actually measure.
Bathing water classifications are based on samples taken at specific locations and at specific times. They provide valuable information about water quality at those sampling points and during those periods.
However, they do not necessarily provide a complete picture of every discharge event, every overflow, or the condition of the wider coastal environment throughout the year.
An excellent bathing water classification is undoubtedly good news. It demonstrates that water quality met the required standards when tested. However, it does not automatically mean there are no wider environmental concerns. Both statements can be true at the same time.
One of the limitations of the current system is that routine bathing water samples are generally not taken during overflow events when pollution risks may be at their highest or that sampling continues for an agreed monitoring period afterwards. If it did perhaps it would provide a more complete understanding of the short-term environmental impacts of these events and help build greater public confidence.
Excellent bathing water results should be celebrated but they should also be viewed as one part of a much bigger picture.
Why this matters
For many people, this issue is no longer simply about sewage. It is about trust.
People want confidence that the information available to the public is complete and accurate.
They want to know whether the infrastructure serving Sunderland is capable of meeting modern demands. They want to know whether wildlife, coastal ecosystems and public health are being adequately protected.
Most importantly, they want clear answers to reasonable questions.
The data raises those questions.
The public deserves answers.
Detailed questions have been submitted to Northumbrian Water and the Environment Agency regarding network capacity, missing monitoring records, enforcement action and future investment plans.
Any responses received will be published in full, because this investigation is not about blame.
It is about understanding what the evidence is telling us and ensuring that decisions affecting our coastline are based on transparency, accountability and facts.
The health of our sea, the life within it and the health of our communities and future generations matter. Protecting them requires openness, accountability and a commitment to following the evidence, wherever it leads.
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