Wastewater and Drainage Asset Information
Case reference EIR2026/29677
Received 16 June 2026
Published 6 November 2026
Request
Under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, I request the following information for the area extending from Roker Pier, through Sunderland Marina and the River Wear estuary, to and beyond Wearmouth Bridge, including Queen Alexandra Bridge and associated catchments.
Please provide:
* GIS mapping data, shapefiles, or mapped asset information showing all:
* Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs)
* Emergency Overflows
* Storm Overflows
* Pumping Stations
* Pumping Station Outfalls
* Surface Water Outfalls
* Highway Drainage Outfalls
* Consented Wastewater Discharges
* Other sewerage assets that discharge directly or indirectly to the River Wear, Sunderland Marina, North Dock, South Dock, or adjacent coastal waters
* Asset names, reference numbers, and locations.
* Details of any Event Duration Monitoring (EDM) equipment associated with these assets.
* Records of discharge events, spill notifications, or overflow activations for the previous five years where available.
* Any environmental assessments, modelling studies, or reports relating to these assets and their impact on bathing waters, wildlife, or water quality.
For clarity, the investigation area includes, but is not limited to:
* Sunderland Marina (West Outlet)
* Sunderland Marina (East Outlet)
* Sunderland Marina (Sailing Club Outlet)
* St Peter's Pumping Station Outfall
* North Dock Drainage Outfalls
* Surface Water Outfalls entering the Marina Basin
* Roker Overflow / Outfall
* South Pier Outfalls
* Sheepfolds Area Outfalls
* Glass Centre Frontage Outfalls
* St Peter's Riverside Outfalls
* Queen Alexandra Bridge Pumping Station
* Pallion CSO Assets
* Highway Drainage Outfalls discharging into the River Wear
Response
Thank you for your request for information regarding Wastewater and Drainage Asset Information, which we received on 16 June 2026.
We respond to requests for information that we hold under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). The Regulations requires that we respond to requests by advising you whether information is held or not, and if so by providing you with that information.
Information provided
• Details of any Event Duration Monitoring (EDM) equipment associated with these assets.
Permit numbers in the requested location can be found in the enclosed spreadsheet, and you can find detailed information by using the permit number on Gov.uk: Environmental Permitting Regulations – Discharges to Water and Groundwater. Full details of supporting information and licensing are available when you access the data.
• Records of discharge events, spill notifications, or overflow activations for the previous five years where available.
Please find this information enclosed.
Please refer to the Open Government Licence which explains the permitted use of this information.
Information not held
· Highway Drainage Outfalls, we do not hold highway drainage information or mapping.
• Any environmental assessments, modelling studies, or reports relating to these assets and their impact on bathing waters, wildlife, or water quality.
EIR Regulation 3(2) states that information is held if it is in our possession and has been produced or received by us, or it is held by another person on our behalf at the time the request is received.
Where a request is for environmental information, the Regulations allow us to refuse to disclose it if the exception at EIR Regulation 12(4)(a) applies. The regulation states that a public authority may refuse to disclose environmental information to the extent that it does not hold that information when an applicant’s request is received.
In this case, the information you have requested is not held by the Environment Agency. Therefore, we are refusing your request on the grounds that there is no information we can provide for this part of your request.
It is not possible for us to conduct a public interest balancing test because the reason for non-disclosure is that the information is not held.
Information withheld
We are unable to provide you with the following
• GIS mapping data, shapefiles, or mapped asset information showing all:
-
Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs)
-
Emergency Overflows
-
Storm Overflows
-
Pumping Stations
-
Pumping Station Outfalls
-
Surface Water Outfalls
-
Consented Wastewater Discharges
-
Other sewerage assets that discharge directly or indirectly to the River Wear, Sunderland Marina, North Dock, South Dock, or adjacent coastal waters
• Asset names, reference numbers, and locations.
We are withholding this information because the following exception applies
12(5)(a) International relations, public safety & national security
‘A public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that its disclosure would adversely affect –
(a) international relations, defence, national security or public safety’.
As a public body under EIR, we must provide reasons for this refusal. We also share how we have considered the Public Interest for refusal and disclosure. You can find details in the appendix.
We are aware that some information is already publicly available, as published by English water and sewerage companies via Stream. There are the storm overflow event data and map (National Storm Overflow Hub for England) which contains information about all the outfall (but not overflow) locations in England and there is also a national dataset available: Stream - Portal
We hope this might be useful to you.
Rights of appeal
If you are not satisfied with our decision, you can contact us within two calendar months to ask for the decision to be reviewed. We will then conduct an internal review of our response to your request and give you our decision in writing within 40 working days.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review, you can then make an appeal to the Information Commissioner Office, the statutory regulator for the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please follow this link to the ICO online complaints portal. The address is: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate) | Fax: 01625 524 510 Email: icocasework@ico.org.uk | Website: www.ico.org.uk
Appendix
Relevant exceptions
The exceptions that apply to the withheld information are:
12(5)(a) International relations, public safety & national security
‘A public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that its disclosure would adversely affect –
(a) international relations, defence, national security or public safety’.
The Public Interest Test
We have weighed the public interest factors in favour of maintaining the exceptions and find that they outweigh the public interest factors in disclosing the information. In carrying out the public interest test we have considered:
1. Factors in favour of releasing the information:
General presumption of openness – We recognise that there is a public interest in openness regarding infrastructure that supports the public water network. We would only withhold information if we were sure that disclosure would cause substantial harm. Here the harm is the potential threat to national infrastructure and risk to the public water supply and sewerage system.
General need to promote accountability and transparency – The Environment Agency is an open and transparent organisation, and the disclosure of the other information that we hold demonstrates this. Only information which would adversely affect the security of the water company’s assets has been withheld.
Whether the information is already public – We have taken into account whether the requested information is in the public domain, which it is not. We have provided links to data that is already published online.
Contribution to public debate of issues – We recognised that disclosure may promote understanding of how water services are delivered and maintained.
2. Factors in favour of withholding the information:
Strength’ (and number) of grounds in the legislation – We consider that there is a strong public interest in protecting our national water infrastructure. To disclose maps showing asset locations could lead to a security risk by making these locations vulnerable to vandalism or deliberate attacks. This could compromise water supplies and the sewerage network and in turn affect public health and the environment. There is a strong public interest in ensuring that information which could enable attacks on water infrastructure are not placed in the public domain.
Prejudicing the effective running of the Environment Agency or other public bodies – We have considered that releasing the information requested could compromise the local water supply and sewerage network. This would prejudice the effective running of the Environment Agency and its ability to carry out one of its core duties of protecting the environment.
Whether confidential information can be separated from disclosable information that meets customer needs – We have provided the other information requested where we hold it. We are unable to release the withheld information as it would compromise public health and safety.
As indicated, upon assessing the factors in the public interest test, we find that the factors in favour of withholding information outweigh the public interest factors in disclosing the information.
Documents
This is Environment Agency's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.