Crap Towns / Southampton / Pollution incidents
How often does Southampton get polluted?
15 serious pollution incidents have been recorded in Southampton or within 1 km of it since 2016, the joint 58th most of the 948 English towns that have had one. 2 were major, the worst kind. The most recent came in July 2026 and put algae in the water. Crude sewage turned up in 4 of them.
| When | What | Where | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2026 | Algae | In the water | Significant |
| May 2026 | Crude sewage | In the water | Significant |
| July 2025 | Microbiological | In the water | Significant |
| March 2024 | Organic chemical or product and smoke | In the air | Significant |
| September 2023 | Algae | In the water | Significant |
| September 2023 | Algae | In the water | Significant |
| May 2022 | Crude sewage | In the water | Significant |
| April 2022 | Crude sewage | In the water | Significant |
| June 2021 | Diesel | In the water | Major |
| March 2021 | Non-metal wastes | On the land | Significant |
| August 2020 | An unidentified pollutant | In the water | Major |
| February 2020 | Specific waste material | On the land | Significant |
| October 2018 | Crude sewage | In the water | Significant |
| February 2017 | Fuel oil | On the land | Significant |
| May 2016 | Chemical odour, firefighting run-off and smoke | On the land and in the air | Significant |
| Town | Distance | Serious incidents since 2016 |
|---|---|---|
| Southampton | – | 15 |
| Eastleigh | 6.6 km | 5 |
| Bursledon | 6.4 km | 1 |
| Hedge End | 6.2 km | 1 |
| West End | 4.0 km | 1 |