The Guardian: ‘It’s a national disgrace’: fury at sewage-filled Windermere over toxic algae and dead fish
A short stroll from Beatrix Potter’s former farmhouse in the Lake District are the waters of Cunsey Beck, nestling in the breathtaking landscape that inspired the tales of childhood favourites Jeremy Fisher and Jemima Puddle-Duck.
Campaigners say the once clear waters are regularly blighted by raw sewage from a nearby works. New figures obtained by the Observer reveal the Near Sawrey plant is alleged to have illegally discharged untreated sewage on 56 days from 2021 to 2023.
Matt Staniek, from the campaign Save Windermere, said: “Beatrix Potter was in awe of this natural landscape. If she was alive today she would be campaigning to stop what has become a national disgrace.”
The discharges are revealed in a new analysis which shows that seven United Utilities sewage plants and pumping stations in the Lake District – including a pumping station estimated in a BBC report last month to have pumped 140 million litres of waste into Windermere in three years – are alleged to have illegally spilled on 501 days from 2018 to 2023. The analysis by expert Peter Hammond is based on data obtained from United Utilities and the Environment Agency by Save Windermere and the Windrush Against Sewage Pollution campaign.
Hundreds of fish were reported killed in a pollution incident at Cunsey Beck in June 2022, but the Environment Agency failed to identify a definitive cause in what was later found to be a seriously flawed investigation.
The charity WildFish reported in September that sewage pollution at Cunsey Beck is causing the stream to deteriorate. It has written to the Environment Agency, urging it to order United Utilities to prevent further damage.
Keir Starmer said before the general election that he was sickened by the reports of raw sewage blighting Windermere. Campaigners now want the prime minister to back an ambitious infrastructure project to end the discharges into England’s largest natural lake.
A similar project at Lake Annecy in France in the 1960s and 1970s saw it transformed into one of the cleanest lakes in Europe. United Utilities estimated in a report in February that a similar scheme at Windermere could cost up to £6.4bn.
Windermere is regularly blighted by blue-green algae, partly fuelled by discharges of untreated sewage and warmer weather. Agricultural and urban runoff also contribute to pollution. The algae can be toxic, and also suck up oxygen in the water, which can suffocate fish and other aquatic life.
Tony Coldwell, 67, a cinematographer from Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, who was on Windermere last week on his sailing boat Hydra, said he had also visited Annecy after it was transformed by the scheme to prevent sewage discharges.
“Windermere should be as good as Annecy, which is crystal clear,” he said. “United Utilities has been taking the money for shareholders and not putting it into the lake. It’s a major scandal.”
Chris Taylor, 59, from Grasmere, who also sails on Windermere, was shocked at the blue-green algae blooms on the water in early November. “I’ve never seen it at this time of year like this,” he said. “We are basically paying the water company to pollute the lake.”
Hayley Leece, 42, a wild swimmer, who lives in Ambleside, said she went swimming on a recent Sunday and it was covered in algae bloom. “It was disgusting,” she said. “I could see the algae swirling around me as I was swimming.”
Environment Agency officials say that key pollutants in Windermere have declined since the 1990s, but more work needs to be done to tackle all sources of pollution. The agency works in the Love Windermere partnership which aims “to bring about a healthier future for the lake”. More than half of the phosphorus in Windermere comes from sewage from United Utilities and private sewage works, according to the agency.
The latest analysis by Hammond, a former professor of computational biology, has found that four sewage treatment works and three pumping stations are suspected of breaching permits on 501 days from 2018 to 2023 by discharging raw sewage. Some of the data was withheld, with the firm citing potential prejudice of ongoing Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) and Environment Agency investigations.
Hammond’s work is criticised by United Utilities for being based on “assumptions”. Hammond said: “Ofwat recently cited my analysis extensively in notices for enforcement orders and financial penalties on Thames Water and Yorkshire Water. My analysis uses actual water company records and is published online for all to see. United Utilities has never published any analysis in rebuttal.”
United Utilities has refused to disclose data on phosphorus monitoring at Windermere waste water treatment works and other data from the Near Sawrey plant. It is appealing against rulings by the Information Commissioner’s Office to disclose the data.
Responding to the findings in the latest analysis, Staniek said: “This shows the exploitation of England’s largest lake, which has been used by United Utilities as an open sewer to dump untreated sewage.” Staniek said he was concerned that treated sewage was as much of a threat as untreated sewage to the ecology of the lake, and it was vital that United Utilities provided open access to environmental data.
United Utilities has announced nearly £200m of funding to improve and protect water quality at Windermere. It will improve treatment processes at wastewater plants and invest in improved storm overflows to reduce spills.
Campaigners believe a more radical solution is required, and would like to see an end to all discharges of raw sewage and effluent. Stanley Root, who has studied successful environmental improvement projects at Lake Annecy and Lake Washington next to Seattle, said a piecemeal approach was “doomed to failure”.
Root said a major infrastructure project to divert sewage flows would be worth the investment. “A crystal clear Windermere would produce enormous long-term benefits,” he said.
