Rivers and receiving waters

2,604 rivers, streams, canals, lakes and coastal waters are named in the 2025 annual return. Each page maps the outlets linked to that water, shows the latest company report for each one, and totals the 2025 spill records.

2,604 waters. Search narrows the list and the map.

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Select a marker to open its page. Each marker is an approximate group marker at the centre of the group’s listed outlets. It does not show a river’s course, a company’s area or an outlet. Red means a discharge is reported at one or more of its outlets right now. Blue means every outlet in the group has a current report of no discharge. Grey means incomplete monitor reports: at least one outlet is offline, has no live feed or has no current report.

Waters with a discharge reported now

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A count is the number of outlets whose latest company report says a discharge is taking place. It does not measure volume or water quality. Outlets without a current report are counted as unknown, not as no discharge.

All rivers and waters, A to Z

Highest 2025 spill totals by waterbody

Totals add the 2025 annual counts of every listed outlet. A waterbody with more outlets usually has a higher total, so this is not a ranking of how polluted a river is. Missing counts are left out, not treated as zero.

1
Tyne
177 outlets · 29 below 90% monitor coverage
3,605spills in 2025
2
MERSEY - Transitional
78 outlets · 3 below 90% monitor coverage
2,312spills in 2025
3
Bristol Avon (By Bk to Netham Weir)
126 outlets · 4 below 90% monitor coverage
2,053spills in 2025
4
Aire from Gill Beck (Baildon) to Wyke Beck
86 outlets · 1 without a usable count · 10 below 90% monitor coverage
2,032spills in 2025
5
Mersey (upstream of Manchester Ship Canal)
51 outlets · 7 below 90% monitor coverage
1,711spills in 2025
6
Tame (Swineshaw Brook to Mersey)
47 outlets · 4 below 90% monitor coverage
1,480spills in 2025
7
Ouse from River Nidd to Stillingfleet Beck
41 outlets · 3 below 90% monitor coverage
1,405spills in 2025
8
Irwell (Croal to Irk)
56 outlets · 5 below 90% monitor coverage
1,216spills in 2025

Source: Environment Agency 2025 event duration monitoring annual return. How spills are counted.

What the river pages cover

13,685 outlet records are linked to a named water. Together they report 276,721 spills in 2025. 61 of those records have no usable 2025 spill count, and 618 records have no usable water name at all, so they appear only on the map and area pages.

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Questions about the river pages

How is an outlet linked to a river?: The official annual return names a receiving water and a waterbody ID for each outlet. We group outlets by that waterbody ID. The link comes from the source record, not from our own drainage model.
What does “discharge reported now” mean for a river?: It means the latest company report for one or more outlets on that waterbody says a discharge is taking place. The count is outlets, not volume. It does not say how much of the river is affected or whether the water is safe.
Why does the same river appear more than once?: Official records divide a river into separate stretches, each with its own waterbody ID. We keep those groups separate so that a spill is not assigned to the wrong stretch. Some records use a local stream name instead of a better-known river downstream.
Why is my river missing?: 618 outlet records have no usable receiving-water name or waterbody ID, so they do not appear on a river page. They are still on the map and on area pages.
Can I add up the hours to see how long a river was polluted?: No. Outlets can discharge at the same time, and the records do not track pollution moving downstream. The totals show recorded activity at listed outlets, not the state of the whole river.