Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

North Pennines

Polluted by sewage 894 times in 2025 - lasting 7,266 hours

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

Totals for North Pennines in 2025

35 Sites polluted by Northumbrian Water United Utilities
894 sewage dumps
7,266 hours duration
Sewage pollution map of North Pennines
Sewage pollution map of North Pennines, showing 894 overflows in 2025
That's 10.09 months. On average 2.4 times a day

How does North Pennines compare?

North Pennines was the #12 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.

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Pollution Summary 2025

Here are all the reported sewage overflow totals for North Pennines 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 North Pennines 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 %
Northumbrian Water River East Allen ALLENDALE STW 106 1,865 97.8
Northumbrian Water Wear WESTERN AREA STW 107 1,822 99.5
Northumbrian Water River Nent NENTHEAD STW 84 986 76
Northumbrian Water Rookhope Burn ROOKHOPE STW 59 595 100
Northumbrian Water Wear FROSTERLEY SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS 52 513 98.9
United Utilities Blencarn Beck BLENCARN WWTW 30 195 100
Northumbrian Water Unnamed River Burn CHURCH DENE CSO 53 160 98.7
United Utilities Castle Carrock Beck CASTLE CARROCK WWTW 70 125 99.8
Northumbrian Water River South Tyne ALSTON EJECTOR STATION SPS 21 118 93.9
United Utilities River Eden STENKRITH BRIDGE SSO 16 115 98.1
Northumbrian Water Tarn Beck TINDALE STW 19 102 99.7
Northumbrian Water River Nent THE CARAVAN PARK CSO 51 102 99.2
United Utilities Gamblesby Beck GAMBLESBY PUMPING STATION 25 89 99.8
United Utilities Mill Beck DUFTON WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS 28 88 100
Northumbrian Water River Wear WESTGATE CSO 21 85 90.3
Northumbrian Water Rookhope Burn STOTSFIELD BURN CSO 22 79 99.7
Northumbrian Water Philip Burn PHILIPBURN DENE PS 11 40 95.3
United Utilities Hazelrigg Beck UNTHANK PUMPING STATION 11 28 99.9
Northumbrian Water River Wear HUNTSHIELD FORD CSO 13 25 88.1
Northumbrian Water River South Tyne SLAGGYFORD SPS 4 25 99.9
Northumbrian Water River Derwent BLANCHLAND STW 5 20 100
Northumbrian Water South Tyne GARRIGILL MANHOLE 9901 SSO 4 17 83.4
Northumbrian Water River Nent FRONT STREET (TOWN HALL) CSO 16 16 99.9
Northumbrian Water Wear WESTGATE CARAVAN SITE CSO 2 16 99.3
United Utilities Murton Beck MURTON BRIDGE HOUSE PUMPING STATION 6 7 99.4
Northumbrian Water River South Tyne THE FIRS CSO ED003 3 6 87.3
Northumbrian Water River Wear ROSE TERRACE CSO 12 3 91.2
United Utilities Harberry Beck RENWICK CSO (171MD) 14 2 99.9
Northumbrian Water Wear VEDRA CLOSE SSO 2 2 100
United Utilities River Caldew REAR OF PIRELLI FACTORY CSO 5 2 99.9
Northumbrian Water River Nent KINGS ARMS LANE CSO 7 1 99.8
United Utilities Castle Carrock Beck CASTLE CARROK CSO 7 1 100
Northumbrian Water Wharnley Burn OPP OLD CASTLESIDE STW CSO 4 0 99.6
Northumbrian Water River Nent CSO AT HILLIERSON TERRACE 3 0 64.5
Northumbrian Water River Tees CALIFORNIA ROW CSO 1 0 98.1

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.