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Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

North Wessex Downs

Polluted by sewage 1,531 times in 2025 - lasting 19,216 hours - That's 2.22 years!

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

Totals for North Wessex Downs in 2025

31 Sites polluted by Thames Water Wessex Water
1,531 sewage dumps
19,216 hours duration
That's 2.22 years. On average 4.2 times a day

How does North Wessex Downs compare?

North Wessex Downs was the #6 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 Wessex Downs 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 Wessex Downs 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 %
Thames Water Mill Brook South Moreton 137 2,720 98.8
Thames Water Winterbournestream WINTERBOURNE WWTW 116 2,635 100
Thames Water River Lambourn EAST SHEFFORD WWTW 102 2,207 99.9
Thames Water Kennet MARLBOROUGH WWTW 96 1,557 99.8
Wessex Water Abberd Brook THE PONDS PS 70 1,501 98.8
Thames Water River Pang COMPTON SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS 62 1,283 99.5
Wessex Water River Avon SPANIEL'S BRIDGE PUMPING STATION 52 1,077 99.9
Wessex Water River Avon PEWSEY WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS 46 743 99.9
Thames Water Pound Street Brook WASHWATER WWTW 53 736 100
Wessex Water River Bourne COLLINGBOURNE DUCIS PUMPING STATION 106 730 100
Thames Water River Pang HAMPSTEAD NORREYS WWTW 33 628 100
Thames Water Hamstead Stream HAMSTEAD MARSHALL WWTW 42 565 100
Thames Water Enbourn Knights Lane 30 424 100
Wessex Water River Marden CALNE PUMPING STATION 23 395 99.9
Thames Water Sulham Brook PANGBOURNE WWTW 14 270 100
Thames Water Kennet And Avon Canal GREAT BEDWYN WWTW 18 267 99.6
Thames Water River Bourne CHAPEL ROW (BERKS) WWTW 21 252 95
Thames Water Briff Lane Stream Bucklebury 23 221 100
Thames Water Penwood Stream Blind Mans Gate, Highclere 21 183 100
Thames Water Kennet Kintbury 11 159 100
Thames Water Webbs Lane Stream BEENHAM WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS 336 132 100
Wessex Water Unnamed Watercourse SMALL STREET PS 10 122 100
Wessex Water Etchilhampton Water HORTON FARM PUMPING STATION 75 113 100
Thames Water River Dun EAST GRAFTON WWTW 7 89 99.7
Wessex Water River Avon NORTH NEWNTON PUMPING STATION 6 78 100
Wessex Water River Avon ALL CANNINGS PS 6 52 99.9
Wessex Water River Avon HIGH STREET PUMPING STATION 3 23 99.9
Wessex Water River Avon PATNEY WEIR PUMPING STATION 4 22 100
Wessex Water River Avon WILCOT PUMPING STATION 1 19 99.9
Wessex Water River Avon SWAN PUMPING STATION 6 1 100
Thames Water Kennet London Road 1 0 93.1

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.