By Julie Waters
IT’s one of the most protected marine environments in Northern Ireland, yet new figures have revealed that just one outlet is responsible for spilling over 35 million litres of diluted sewage into Strangford Lough each year.
According to the Department for Infrastructure’s (DfI) own figures, overflows from the South Street wastewater pumping station in Newtownards are responsible for an estimated 35.4 million litres of sewage polluted water spilling into Northern Ireland’s only Marine Conservation Zone.
Strangford Assemblywoman Michelle McIlveen has labelled the spills as ‘astounding’ and called on Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins to prioritise investment in the ageing wastewater infrastructure.
The DfI figures show that the South Street wastewater pumping station discharged sewage on 27 occasions in 2025, with the spills lasting a total of 143 hours. There were 19 overflow incidents lasting 63 hours in 2024. As monitoring equipment was only installed at South Street in 2023, there are no previous figures on overflows from the site.
The equipment that monitors overflows does not monitor the volume that is discharged and it is up to DfI experts to calculate an estimated spill volume which, in the case of South Street, is around 35.4 million litres.
The pollution figures emerged following a written Assembly question from Miss McIlveen, who pressed Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins about the number of wastewater storm overflows from South Street WwPS.
Sewage treatment facilities, such as pumping stations and wastewater treatment plants, have a built-in failsafe mechanism to prevent flooding during heavy rainfall. If the volume of sewage and water entering the system is in danger of overwhelming it the system will automatically discharge into nearby waterways.
In the case of South Street, the system overflows into the canal which itself discharges into Strangford Lough.
Miss McIlveen said she was prompted to discover the scale of the pollution problem after a number of Newtownards town centre business owners raised concerns about securing new connections to the current NI Water infrastructure.
The number of pollution incidents in local waterways was slammed as ‘unacceptable’ when a council delegation recently met with Minister Kimmins and officials from both the DfI and NI Water.
Renewed calls have been made for further investment in the waste water treatment infrastructure to reduce the number of pollution incidents and increase capacity.
Miss McIlveen, the DUP deputy leader, expressed her ‘disbelief’ at the scale of the polluted spills.
“I was astounded by the scale of the problem emanating from this one pumping station in the centre of Newtownards,” she said.
“This shows the scale of the problem when we are seeking new connections, even in older properties, in our town centre.”
Said Miss McIlveen: “This isn’t just an issue about the fact that these spills occur, it is also where they end up. My
understanding is that these go into the canal and work their way through to the Strangford Lough.
“So each year we have nearly 50,000,000 litres of polluted water working its way around the centre of Newtownards before depositing that pollution in one of the most heavily designated bodies of water in terms of environmental protection. “However, fixing this problem does not appear to be a priority for the Minister when it comes to funding Northern Ireland Water.”
Alderman Stephen McIlveen also voiced his concerns, saying he was part of the council delegation that met with the Minister, Departmental officials and Northern Ireland Water officials.
