Save Windermere launches statutory nuisance complaint against United Utilities sewage discharging

• First complaint of its kind in the UK against a water company 

• National ramifications if investigation concludes a nuisance has occurred

• Save Windermere will challenge decisions made by the investigation if deemed legally insufficient

• Save Windermere calls for cessation of sewage discharges at wastewater treatment works  

Save Windermere, working with environmental barrister Nicholas Ostrowski, is demanding that Westmorland and Furness Council immediately investigate a statutory nuisance complaint made by the campaigning group. If the council finds that a nuisance has occurred arising from sewage discharges by the water company, an abatement notice will be served requiring sewage discharges from Ambleside Wastewater Treatment Works and other locations around Ambleside to be limited or halted all together. If United Utilities fail to do so, they will risk being prosecuted and fined until the nuisance ceases.

Matt Staniek delivering complaint to Westmorland & Furness Council

Windermere is under threat from sewage being discharged into its catchment. Recently, it was revealed that United Utilities illegally discharged 10 million litres of untreated sewage into the lake on a single night in February 2024, as a result of inadequate procedures to deal with a recurring telecoms issue at Glebe Road Pumping Station.

Now, Save Windermere is pressuring the local council to launch a statutory nuisance investigation against the local water company United Utilities – an unprecedented approach to sewage discharging in the UK.

Section 79(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 sets out the categories of statutory nuisance, and Save Windermere contends that sewage discharging in Ambleside constitutes a nuisance in two of these categories. This will be the first time this legislation is utilised in relation to sewage discharges.

First, s.79(1)(e) confirms that a statutory nuisance can occur from ‘accumulations or deposits’. Save Windermere contends that due to the accumulations of suspended solids in untreated sewage, a nuisance has occurred.

Secondly, in addition to or as an alternative to the above, s.79(1)(h) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 states that a statutory nuisance would include, ‘any other matter declared by any enactment to be a statutory nuisance’. S.259 of the Public Health Act 1936 states that a statutory nuisance would include: ‘Any pond, pool, ditch, gutter or watercourse which is so foul or in such a state as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance’.  The courts in R v Falmouth and Truro Port Health Authority [1999] Env LR 833 (and on appeal [2001] Q.B. 455) have already found that a statutory nuisance can occur from a sewer discharge into a watercourse albeit in that case there was held to be no statutory nuisance because the waterbody into which the sewage was discharged (a tidal estuary) was not a pond, pool, ditch, gutter or watercourse. There is no such problem in this case as the river Rothay (and Lake Windermere) are plainly watercourses.

Save Windermere has clearly demonstrated a nuisance has occurred, with clear evidence documenting 113 incidences of discharging into and around the river Rothay in Ambleside over a 13 month period. 

These discharges are in addition to work undertaken by Professor Peter Hammond of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP), which, through analysis of United Utilities' data, has identified at least 234 days with illegal early spills of untreated sewage by United Utilities into Lake Windermere and the surrounding catchment between 2018 and 2022 – including 75 days on which illegal spilling occurred at Ambleside Wastewater Treatment Works.

These infractions highlight a lack of capacity. Save Windermere contends that this is due to chronic underinvestment by the water company. Even if United Utilities were to claim compliance with their permit, this is irrelevant in the context of a statutory nuisance claim and the campaign argues this is not true in any case.

To date, regulatory efforts have faltered in effectively managing excessive nutrients entering Windermere, resulting in potentially toxic algae becoming a regular occurrence year-round. Save Windermere calls for a complete end to sewage discharging into Windermere, following the proactive approaches taken in countries all over the world.