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38 landscapes in England and Wales are protected for their beauty. In 2025 the water companies discharged sewage into every single one of them — 32,119 times, for 269,634 hours.
A CSO Combined Sewage Overflow - a device that, when operating, pours combined rainwater & sewage into a waterway counts towards an AONB when it sits inside the designated area, or within 200 metres of its boundary.
The protected landscapes with the most hours of sewage in 2025.
Every Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England and Wales, for 2025.
| Rank | Area | Country | Sewage Dumps | Change | Duration (Hours) | Change | Live |
| 1 | High Weald | England | 3,515 | -2,594 | 24,521 | -37,010 | |
| 2 | Cornwall | England | 2,647 | -640 | 24,391 | -6,334 | |
| 3 | Dorset | England | 2,318 | -1,551 | 23,397 | -20,404 | |
| 4 | Tamar Valley | England | 2,028 | -709 | 22,781 | -8,915 | |
| 5 | Ynys Mon / Anglesey | Wales | 1,990 | 292 | 19,257 | 3,767 | |
| 6 | North Wessex Downs | England | 1,531 | -1,089 | 19,216 | -20,158 | |
| 7 | Cotswolds | England | 2,299 | -2,283 | 19,008 | -29,610 | |
| 8 | South Devon | England | 2,270 | -968 | 16,323 | -12,379 | |
| 9 | East Devon | England | 2,688 | 954 | 13,144 | -4,033 | |
| 10 | Nidderdale | England | 1,052 | -652 | 9,837 | -8,458 | |
| 11 | Llyn | Wales | 685 | 175 | 7,361 | 1,632 | |
| 12 | North Pennines | England | 894 | -503 | 7,266 | -4,756 | |
| 13 | Forest Of Bowland | England | 812 | -155 | 6,467 | -2,388 | |
| 14 | North Devon | England | 588 | -125 | 5,763 | -670 | |
| 15 | Wye Valley | England | 697 | -478 | 5,117 | -2,429 | |
| 16 | Gower | Wales | 523 | -209 | 5,072 | -4,072 | |
| 17 | Mendip Hills | England | 452 | -288 | 4,586 | -4,461 | |
| 18 | Isle Of Wight | England | 642 | -518 | 4,342 | -5,350 | |
| 19 | Cranborne Chase & West Wiltshire Downs | England | 460 | -659 | 4,011 | -10,053 | |
| 20 | Blackdown Hills | England | 374 | -83 | 3,955 | -396 | |
| 21 | Shropshire Hills | England | 292 | -275 | 3,643 | -3,061 | |
| 22 | Solway Coast | England | 532 | -130 | 3,179 | -583 | |
| 23 | Clwydian Range & Dee Valley | Wales | 543 | -240 | 2,887 | -1,182 | |
| 24 | Howardian Hills | England | 333 | -138 | 2,144 | -2,422 | |
| 25 | Northumberland Coast | England | 402 | -126 | 1,928 | -909 | |
| 26 | Quantock Hills | England | 143 | -150 | 1,866 | -2,408 | |
| 27 | Chichester Harbour | England | 162 | -174 | 1,865 | -2,273 | |
| 28 | Surrey Hills | England | 195 | -120 | 1,827 | -1,668 | |
| 29 | Malvern Hills | England | 144 | -115 | 1,362 | -1,350 | |
| 30 | Arnside & Silverdale | England | 161 | 2 | 752 | -12 | |
| 31 | Lincolnshire Wolds | England | 69 | -10 | 542 | 38 | |
| 32 | Chilterns | England | 72 | -592 | 498 | -10,347 | |
| 33 | Norfolk Coast | England | 163 | -243 | 483 | -2,103 | |
| 34 | Kent Downs | England | 98 | -97 | 389 | -1,541 | |
| 35 | Suffolk Coast & Heaths | England | 141 | -232 | 272 | -227 | |
| 36 | Dedham Vale | England | 127 | -17 | 86 | -2,391 | |
| 37 | Isles Of Scilly | England | 60 | 17 | 52 | -127 | |
| 38 | Cannock Chase | England | 17 | 6 | 29 | -2 |
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.
Get in touch if you have queries or want to discuss our data.
press [at] top-of-the-poops.org