🚯 Sewage in Britain's rivers
Water companies are allowed to dump untreated sewage through "storm overflows" when it rains. Here's how often they do it — the worst companies, rivers and sites, what's discharging right now, and how to complain.
290.4k
Spills in 2025 (England)
290,430 discharges
1.9M
Hours of sewage
1,869,824 hours
11,925
Sites that spilled
of 14,101 in the EA return
1,313
At bathing waters
872 shellfish waters
81 overflows with no 2025 figure (no return for that year, or no usable monitor data) are not included in these totals or rankings.
🚨 Expelling right now
Storm overflows reporting as actively discharging this minute, from the live water-company feed. Times are UK time.
🕒 Live feed obtained 4 min ago
205 overflows discharging now · 61 started in the last 6 hours
since
since
Yeolmbridge Ps
TRIB OF RIVER OTTERY · South West Water
since
Malham Wwtw
MALHAM BECK · Yorkshire Water
since
Glossop Stw (sps)
TRIB RIVER ETHEROW · United Utilities
since
Grasmere Wwtw
GRASMERE LAKE · United Utilities
since
Orton-on-the-hill Stw
TRIBUTARY OF RIVER ANKER · Severn Trent Water
since
since
Tregarth Wwtw Storm Overflow
Afon Ogwen · Dwr Cymru Welsh Water
since
since
since
Flintham Sewage Treatment Works
TRIB OF CAR DYKE · Severn Trent Water
since
since
Pontyberem Wwtw Storm Overflow
Gwendraeth Fawr · Dwr Cymru Welsh Water
since
since
since
Cilycwm Wwtw Storm Overflow
Gwenlais · Dwr Cymru Welsh Water
since
since
Spring Street Connahs Quay Overflow
Wepra Brook · Dwr Cymru Welsh Water
since
Baglan Sea Storm Overflow
Swansea Bay · Dwr Cymru Welsh Water
since
Llanrug Wwtw Storm Overflow
Afon Seiont · Dwr Cymru Welsh Water
since
Talaton Wastewater Treatment Works
TRIB OF RIVER TALE · South West Water
since
Fitz Bridge (low Road) Cso
DERWENT · United Utilities
since
since
Church Hanborough Wwtw
HANBOROUGH STREAM · Thames Water
since
🏭 Worst water companies
By total storm-overflow spills in 2025 (official Environment Agency figures — England; Wales and Scotland publish no comparable annual return in this table yet).
1
1,955 sites spilled · 241 at bathing waters · Complain →
60,241
325.3k hrs
2
1,876 sites spilled · 77 at bathing waters · Complain →
51,276
285.3k hrs
3
1,179 sites spilled · 245 at bathing waters · Complain →
46,164
407k hrs
4
1,991 sites spilled · 11 at bathing waters · Complain →
36,315
199.3k hrs
5
1,295 sites spilled · 90 at bathing waters · Complain →
27,722
123.1k hrs
6
1,096 sites spilled · 74 at bathing waters · Complain →
24,175
187.7k hrs
7
1,186 sites spilled · 65 at bathing waters · Complain →
17,115
105.4k hrs
8
796 sites spilled · 169 at bathing waters · Complain →
15,532
114.8k hrs
9
441 sites spilled · 2 at bathing waters · Complain →
9,165
107.8k hrs
10
110 sites spilled · Complain →
2,725
14k hrs
🌊 Worst-hit waterways
Rivers and watercourses taking the most spills in 2025 (names normalised; open-sea outfalls excluded).
1
River Avon
215 overflows
4,172
18.1k hrs
2
River Derwent
96 overflows
3,518
23.5k hrs
3
River Calder
88 overflows
3,502
22.1k hrs
4
River Aire
81 overflows
2,932
17.2k hrs
5
River Tame
94 overflows
2,241
10.1k hrs
6
River Irwell
72 overflows
2,129
9.7k hrs
7
River Ouse
44 overflows
1,916
17.7k hrs
8
River Don
59 overflows
1,826
11k hrs
9
River Mersey
50 overflows
1,725
7.4k hrs
10
River Trent
79 overflows
1,658
8.4k hrs
11
River Wharfe
39 overflows
1,495
9.9k hrs
12
River Severn
63 overflows
1,491
8k hrs
13
River Wear
48 overflows
1,405
8.4k hrs
14
River Rother
48 overflows
1,304
7.9k hrs
15
River Tamar
28 overflows
1,251
8.9k hrs
16
River Mersey Estuary
25 overflows
1,234
6.9k hrs
17
River Eden
31 overflows
1,148
7.2k hrs
18
River Colne
46 overflows
1,082
5.1k hrs
19
River Tyne
45 overflows
992
3.2k hrs
20
River Stour
47 overflows
971
6.7k hrs
🎯 Worst individual sites
The single overflows that spilled most in 2025.
1
CROYDE BAY (COASTAL) · South West Water
253
1,252 hrs
2
HUMBER · Yorkshire Water
245
1,219 hrs
3
Tributary of Coombe Valley Stream · South West Water
243
4,966 hrs
4
SALCOMBE REGIS STREAM · South West Water
235
5,446 hrs
5
TRIBUTARY OF RIVER YEO · South West Water
230
2,035 hrs
6
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL · United Utilities
217
1,573 hrs
7
FOWEY ESTUARY (E) · South West Water
198
634 hrs
8
KENWITH STREAM · South West Water
196
204 hrs
9
FORTON BROOK · South West Water
189
4,141 hrs
10
SEVERN ESTUARY · Severn Trent Water
178
1,476 hrs
175
2,568 hrs
12
TRIBUTARY OF LANGHAM LAKE(S) · South West Water
173
1,912 hrs
13
BRAY(S) · South West Water
172
3,762 hrs
14
172
2,508 hrs
15
MARSKE BECK · Yorkshire Water
170
2,045 hrs
🕐 When do spills start?
Spill starts by hour and weekday (recent live data). Rain drives most of it — darker = more spills begin then.
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Hour of day (0–23) · lighter → darker = fewer → more spills
✉️ Seen a spill? Report it
Pollution you can see — sewage in the water, dead fish, foul smells — should be reported. It builds the case regulators act on.
England — Environment Agency 24-hour incident hotline: 0800 80 70 60
Wales — Natural Resources Wales: 0300 065 3000 · Scotland — SEPA: 0800 80 70 60
Complain to the water company:
📍 Sewage near you
See discharges and river levels for your area.
Where this comes from. Annual rankings are the Environment Agency's official Event Duration Monitoring (EDM) returns for 2025 (spills and hours per overflow, as published). "Expelling right now" is the water companies' live EDM feeds — the nine English companies (checked every 15 minutes), Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water's Storm Overflow Map and Scottish Water's near-real-time Overflow Map API (both refreshed about hourly). The
"when do spills start" heatmap is built from spill starts we've captured since early 2026. Waterway names are normalised approximately, so a few
may merge or split. Annual rankings and the heatmap's early months are England only. Not an emergency service — for pollution in progress call the hotline for your nation above.
Updated 2026-10-29 11:09 UTC.