The Times: Windermere ‘had 200,000 litres of sewage dumped in it a day’
Nearly two hundred thousand litres of raw sewage was spilled in one day into a lake flowing into Windermere, according to campaigners who claim the discharge was illegal.
The details of the sewage dumping come as new legal rules take effect, requiring water firms to be more transparent about their efforts to stop pollution.
The Lake District incident happened on March 13 last year at Hawkshead, a pumping station run by water firm United Utilities that discharges into Esthwaite Water, an ecologically important lake in Windermere’s catchment. The company disputed the suggestion that the sewage release was illegal.
Professor Peter Hammond of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution and Matt Staniek of Save Windermere obtained data from the company under transparency laws, to cross-reference figures on sewage pumping rates, sewage discharges and rainfall.
Water firms are only permitted by the Environment Agency to dump untreated sewage into waterways during periods of heavy rainfall and must treat or move sewage at a flow limit specified in permits. If they spill when failing to meet that limit or when it hasn’t rained in the last 24 hours, the discharge is likely non-compliant, or illegal.
United Utilities’ data shows Hawkshead began spilling at 5.48am on March 13, according to Staniek and Hammond’s analysis. It wasn’t until 1.15pm that staff visiting the site noticed it was discharging while below the permitted flow. The firm then reported the incident to the EA. It was not until 9.20pm in the evening that the flow returned to normal.
Staniek estimated that about 190,050 litres of untreated sewage entered Esthwaite that day, in breach of its permit. The amount is equivalent to the daily water use of 1,387 people.
“Here we are yet again: United Utilities dumping sewage illegally, the regulator turning a blind eye, and irreparable environmental damage being caused in Windermere. When are we going to see action for the harm being done in the Lake District?” said Staniek.
United Utilities said the discharge was legal, within the limits of its permit. It said the campaigners used a different methodology to the EA.
Handwritten United Utilities logbooks of operations at Hawkshead, obtained by Staniek, have entries for flow rates on several days. However, on March 13 they were blank despite the high volume of sewage being discharged. Staniek claimed the absence of any written record was “suspicious” and “damning”.
Staniek asked for the data on Hawkshead via Environmental Regulation Information requests. The company, whose chief executive, Louise Beardmore, told MPs this year: “I do not think that we got transparency right,” initially refused the requests. The information was only released after a ruling by the Information Commissioner’s Office, the watchdog which has ordered water firms to be more open.
The battle to protect England’s largest lake, which is in a Unesco world heritage site, has pitted Staniek against United Utilities. The company released sewage into the lake for more than 6,000 hours last year, but argues pollution comes from multiple sources and says it has invested £40 million in infrastructure around Windermere since 2020.
The March 13 incident resulted in sewage being dumped into Esthwaite Water, which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its fauna and flora and also recognised as an internationally important wetland under the Ramsar convention. Water from Esthwaite flows via a short river, Cunsey Beck, into Windermere.
The EA initially categorised the incident as “category 4”, the lowest on its four-point scale for pollution events. When Staniek challenged the classification, the regulator upgraded it to a category 3 incident. If incidents are classified as 1 or 2, they can have financial repercussions for water firms.
United Utilities told the EA it believed the issue at Hawkshead on March 13 was caused by a partial blockage and believed it had fixed it after the rising main was flushed on the day. A company spokesman said: “Our report to the EA is accurate. After the blockage was removed, flows at the site increased. Due to weather conditions at the time, the system continued to discharge within its permit.”
The EA said: “The Environment Agency responded to and investigated the reported incident at Hawkshead. We’ve issued warnings to United Utilities for the site, and we’re continuing to monitor it, with six inspections conducted between September 2024 and June 2025.”
Under a new requirement of a law passed by Labour in February, water companies will from Monday have to publish Pollution Incident Reduction Plans. These must detail how firms are curbing sewage pollution incidents, with the first due on April 1.
