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Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Tamar Valley

Polluted by sewage 2,028 times in 2025 - lasting 22,781 hours - That's 2.64 years!

Monitoring fell below 50% in some locations so could be more

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

Totals for Tamar Valley in 2025

37 Sites polluted by South West Water
2,028 sewage dumps
22,781 hours duration
That's 2.64 years. On average 5.6 times a day

How does Tamar Valley compare?

Tamar Valley was the #4 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 Tamar Valley 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 Tamar Valley 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 Milton Stream STOKE HILL WWTW 135 2,367 99.9
South West Water River Inny BEALS MILL WWTW 125 1,867 100
South West Water Landrake Stream LANDRAKE WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS 91 1,755 100
South West Water River Tamar Estuary ST DOMINICK WWTW 93 1,669 98.5
South West Water River Inny BEALS MILL PUMPING STATION 77 1,618 100
South West Water Milton Stream STOKE HILL WWTW 92 1,538 100
South West Water River Tamar MILTON ABBOT WWTW 83 1,455 100
South West Water River Tamar ST DOMINICK PUMPING STATION 72 1,066 100
South West Water Tidal River Tamar BERE ALSTON STW 91 1,031 100
South West Water River Tamar HAREWOOD ROAD CSO 164 1,029 99.9
South West Water Unknown BERE ALSTON STW 82 978 100
South West Water River Tamar GUNNISLAKE WWTW 94 955 100
South West Water River Tavy BUCKLAND MONACHORUM WWTW 52 941 100
South West Water River Tavy CROWNDALE COTTAGES CSO 72 815 74.9
South West Water River Tamar PLAYING FIELDS PUMPING STATION 73 660 100
South West Water River Tamar LATCHLEY STW 42 604 98.9
South West Water River Tamar GUNNISLAKE WWTW 72 440 100
South West Water Polbathic Lake ST GERMANS WWTW 27 295 100
South West Water River Tavy BERE FERRERS PUMPING STATION 66 268 100
South West Water River Tamar CHILSWORTHY WWTW 41 250 95.7
South West Water River Tamar Via Sws GUNNISLAKE NO.2 CSO 82 230 97.8
South West Water River Lyner FORDER NO 1 PSCSO/EO 28 200 98.9
South West Water St Mellion Stream ST MELLION PUMPING STATION 22 145 100
South West Water River Lynher Estuary ANTONY STW (INLET TO WORKS) SSO 64 133 98.1
South West Water River Tamar CARGREEN PSCSO/EO 49 130 100
South West Water River Tavy CROWNDALE WWTW 9 121 5.9
South West Water Alren Stream OLD MILL PS 25 98 91.3
South West Water River Tamar Via Sws BERE ALSTON COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW 45 51 100
South West Water River Tamar LOWER KELLY PSCSO/EO 8 18 100
South West Water River Lyner FORDER NO 2 PSCSO/EO 5 8 98.9
South West Water River Tamar THE QUAY COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW 19 7 100
South West Water Stream ST MELLION PUMPING STATION 2 6 100
South West Water River Lyner LANDRAKE PUMPING STATION 3 6 100
South West Water Polbathic Stream POLBATHIC VILLAGE PS 16 5 100
South West Water Hamoaze WILCOVE STW 2 2 100
South West Water River Lynher SHEVIOCK STW SO 1 0 99.3
South West Water River Tamar VICARGE GARDENS CSO MILTON ABBOT 4 0 100

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.