iNews: Windermere ‘unfit for bathing’ as sewage blamed for algae breaching safe limit
A 100-metre-wide algal bloom left an area of Windermere unfit for bathing, tests have revealed, as campaigners blamed United Utilities for continually dumping sewage.
Matt Staniek, director of the Save Windermere campaign, said the group were alerted to an “extensive” area of blue-green algae at Waterhead, Ambleside on 25 June. The bacteria can be poisonous to both humans and animals.
Although it is not among the Government’s designated bathing sites, Waterhead is popular for water activities and people were swimming at the time, campaigners said.
Samples which were taken at the site – part of England’s largest natural lake, in Cumbria’s Lake District National Park – were tested by algologist Dr Nick Everal.
They showed potentially harmful levels of cyanobacteria – also known as blue green algae – in the water.
In one sample, 809,298 cells of cyanobacteria per millilitre were recorded – more than eight times the World Health Organisation’s recreational limit of 100,000 cells.
On this occasion, toxins were not detected but Dr Everal warned that research suggests blue-green algae often produces them.
“Sixty to 70 per cent of blue-green algal blooms produce toxins and other by-products which can cause allergic skin reactions and vomiting sickness when ingested by humans,” said Dr Everal.
“People would do well to remember that, weight for weight, the toxins produced by these organisms are as toxic as cobra venom if ingested.”
Blue-green algae can occur naturally during warm, sunny weather, but experts said that blooms should not be a regular feature of the water in Windermere because its catchment is rocky and nutrient-poor.
Stephen Trotter, chief excutive of Cumbria Wildlife Trust, wrote last year that Windemere “should be clean, clear and low in phosphorus” and that he was concerned by an increase in “nutrient pollution”.
“Algal blooms in Windermere should be incredibly infrequent,” Mr Staniek told i. “What’s happened is likely a result of not dealing with the number one contributor to phosphorus in the water – which is United Utilities.
“United Utilities is still the single largest input of the nutrients that feed algae growth in Windermere.”
Last year, the water company – which serves the area – paid the highest dividend in the UK, at £320m, and has accrued £8.9bn in debt in the 35 years since privatisation.
