Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Cornwall

Polluted by sewage 2,647 times in 2025 - lasting 24,391 hours - That's 2.82 years!

Marker shade
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Contains OS Data © Crown copyright & database right 2021-2024
© Top of the Poops 2021-2024

Totals for Cornwall in 2025

79 Sites polluted by South West Water
2,647 sewage dumps
24,391 hours duration
Sewage pollution map of Cornwall
Sewage pollution map of Cornwall, showing 2,647 overflows in 2025
That's 2.82 years. On average 7.3 times a day

How does Cornwall compare?

Cornwall was the #2 most polluted Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England & Wales, by duration of sewage overflows, as reported by the water companies

Why the change?

Storm overflows spill when it rains, and 2025 was drier than 2024 - 90% of average annual rainfall against 105%.

So much of any drop is weather, not fixed pipes. The live page shows rainfall and sewage side by side, day by day.

We need your support!

Please consider a one-off or small recurring donation. We need your help to keep this site going.

Donate Now

Pollution Summary 2025

Here are all the reported sewage overflow totals for Cornwall in 2025.

How we count, and how accurate it is

A CSO Combined Sewage Overflow - a device that, when operating, pours combined rainwater & sewage into a waterway counts towards Cornwall when it sits inside the designated area, or within 200 metres of its boundary. An overflow close to two AONBs is counted in both.

We use data from the water companies, but we are seeing many anomalies that make us believe that location information is quite poor. The situation is likely far worse than reported here.

Other CSO Combined Sewage Overflow - a device that, when operating, pours combined rainwater & sewage into a waterway s just outside the 200 metre boundary are not counted, though they may still affect water quality inside the area.

Company Waterway Site Sewage Dumps Duration (Hours) Reporting %
South West Water Penpont Water ALTARNUN STW (STORM TANK) 165 3,294 100
South West Water Atlantic / Porth Nanven Stream COT VALLEY PUMPING STATION 100 2,056 100
South West Water Mylor Creek MYLOR BRIDGE WWTW 83 1,699 100
South West Water River Fowey COMMONMOOR STW 127 1,589 100
South West Water River Loveny CHAPEL CAR PARK PSCSO/EO 82 1,489 99.9
South West Water Mother Iveys Bay ST MERRYN COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW 107 1,380 100
South West Water St Austell Bay POLKERRIS FINE SCREENING PLANT & PS 59 913 100
South West Water Stream BOJEWYAN PSCSO/EO 47 872 100
South West Water Little Petherick Creek LITTLE PETHERICK WWTW 112 815 99.7
South West Water English Channel THE LIZARD PUMPING STATION 54 693 99.9
South West Water Truro River Estuary NEWHAM WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS 51 668 100
South West Water River Fowey Estuary TOWN QUAY PUMPING STATION 198 634 100
South West Water Unknown PERRANUTHNOE PUMPING STATION 50 565 100
South West Water Fowey Estuary FOWEY WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS 72 556 100
South West Water Trevone Bay TREVONE PUMPING STATION 23 441 99.4
South West Water Peneont Water WAR MEMORIAL PSCSO/EO 25 432 100
South West Water Carne Stream VERYAN STW 21 408 100
South West Water Atlantic Ocean, Off Porthcurno PORTHCURNO VALLEY PUMPING STATION 24 394 100
South West Water Mylor Creek MYLOR BRIDGE PSCSO/EO 38 390 100
South West Water Atlantic Ocean GORRAN HAVEN PSCSO/EO 50 387 96.1
South West Water Cawsand Bay Estaurine Via Sws CAWSAND SOUTH PUMPING STATION 29 354 100
South West Water River Cober HELSTON WWTW 32 340 97.4
South West Water Unknown TREKNOW STW 17 296 100
South West Water River Fowey Estuary GOLANT PUMPING STATION 93 288 100
South West Water Tregaseal Stream St Just (Tregeseal 1) 18 274 100
South West Water English Channel HELLARCHER PUMPING STATION 74 245 100
South West Water Atlantic Ocean,Off Sennen Cove SENNEN COVE PUMPING STATION 21 223 99.2
South West Water Pill Creek LOWER TREVILLA PUMPING STATION 26 223 100
South West Water Atlantic Ocean TINTAGEL CASTLE ROAD PUMP STATION 26 215 100
South West Water Atlantic Ocean BOSSINEY BACK LANE PUMPING STATION 22 206 100
South West Water River Kenwyn ECHO CORNER PSCSO/EO 16 159 100
South West Water Unknown ST KEVERNE STW 22 143 100
South West Water Treyarnon Stream TREHEMBORNE PS 22 140 100
South West Water Atlantic Ocean Coastal GEEVOR MINE PUMPING STATION 31 129 100
South West Water Atantic Ocean LOWER BOSCASWELL CSO 72 119 100
South West Water Portmellon Stream GORRAN CHURCHTOWN PUMPING STATION 30 117 100
South West Water River Fowey Estuary CAFFA MILL PUMPING STATION 38 106 100
South West Water River Lynher NORTH HILL WWTW 19 99 98.4
South West Water Coverack Cove COVERACK MILL PS 24 99 98.6
South West Water Church Cove CHURCH COVE ROAD PS 13 91 100
South West Water Atlantic / Porth Nanven Stream BOSORNE ROAD SEWER OVERFLOW 43 90 98.4
South West Water Cawsand Bay KINGSAND SEWAGE PUMPING STATION 21 84 95.8
South West Water English Channel CADGWITH NEW ROAD PSCSO/EO 10 66 100
South West Water Atlantic Ocean BOTALLACK PUMPING STATION 37 63 100
South West Water Mounts Bay PORTHLEVEN HARBOUR ATTENUATION 13 53 100
South West Water Local Stream NANCHERROW HILL CSO 30 49 93.5
South West Water Cawsand Bay KINGSAND SEWAGE PUMPING STATION 44 37 95.9
South West Water Unknown ST GENNYS STW 19 34 99.7
South West Water Mevagissey Bay MEVAGISSEY PS 22 31 100
South West Water St Austell River ST AUSTELL (LONDON APPRENTICE) PS 3 28 100
South West Water Penryn River FLUSHING PUMPING STATION 12 23 100
South West Water Coombe Valley Str STIBB SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS 14 22 100
South West Water Atlantic Ocean BOSWEDDEN PUMPING STATION 8 22 100
South West Water Mounts Bay MOUSEHOLE PUMPING STATION 31 22 100
South West Water Carrick Roads ST MAWES NO.1 PS 34 22 100
South West Water Trevaunance Stream COVE PUMPING STATION 23 21 100
South West Water River Tinney CALENICK PUMPING STATION 6 17 100
South West Water Haven, Atlantic Ocean PORT ISAAC PUMPING STATION 16 15 100
South West Water Mylor Creek MYLOR BRIDGE WWTW 4 14 100
South West Water English Channel POLPERRO WWTW 12 14 100
South West Water River Lerryn LERRYN CAR PARK OVERFLOW 19 13 100
South West Water Polurrian Cove MULLION TRANSFER PS 9 11 100
South West Water Atlantic / Porth Nanven Stream BOSORNE ROAD SEWER OVERFLOW 13 10 100
South West Water Camel Estuary PADSTOW HARBOUR PUMPING STATION 3 9 100
South West Water English Channel LAFLOUDER LANE PUMPING STATION 1 9 100
South West Water Camel Estuary PORTHILLY COVE PUMPING STATION 5 8 100
South West Water Mounts Bay English Channel MOUSEHOLE HARBOUR (SOUTH SLIP) CSO 17 7 100
South West Water Coastal Stream PORT GAVERNE CSO 9 6 100
South West Water Atlantic Ocean BOSCASTLE HARBOUR PUMPING STATION 5 5 100
South West Water River Fowey Estuary READYMONEY COVE PS 2 2 100
South West Water White River NANSLADRON PUMPING STATION 2 1 100
South West Water Coverack Cove COVERACK HARBOUR PSEO/CSO 7 1 99.2
South West Water St Austell River PENTEWAN PSCSO/EO 2 1 100
South West Water River Fowey Estuary WHITEHOUSE SLIP (POINT) CSO 7 1 100
South West Water River Fowey Estuary BODINNICK COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW 3 1 100
South West Water Pencabe Drang PORTSCATHO SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS 3 0 97.1
South West Water Porthallow Stream PORTHALLOW SEWAGE PUMPING STATION 1 0 100
South West Water Port Issac Bay, Atlantic PORT ISAAC WWTW CSO 3 0 100
South West Water Cawsand Bay NORTH ROCK SEWAGE PUMPING STATION 1 0 95.8

Data Sources & Accuracy

EDM (Event Duration Monitoring) data and Consented Discharges to Controlled Waters with Conditions from Environment Agency & Data Map Wales, and Scottish Water

Experimental derived data from Thames Water API, Some data may be missing or inaccurate. Live sewage data from Stream Water API

Annual figures up to and including 2025 come from official water company returns. The 2026 figure is our own estimate, derived continuously from the companies' live data feeds.

Uses Environment Agency rainfall data from the real-time data API (Beta) - Rainfall data is delayed by up to two days.

This website is intended to provide an accurate representation of the Environment Agency data. The data is hard to use, and thus some errors may have been made. If you find something that is incorrect, please raise an issue at the GitHub issues page and we'll endeavour to fix it quickly.

This project is not associated, approved or endorsed by any of the companies whose logos you see here.