Water firm slammed after pumping uncooked sewage into Windermere for EIGHT days – as Feargal Sharkey criticises agency’s cause for extra waste water discharges

A water firm has been slammed after it has been pumping uncooked sewage into Windermere within the Lake District for eight days, with Irish singer Feargal Sharkey blaming water corporations ‘greed, profiteering, monetary engineering and regulatory incompetence’.

A map from water firm United Utilities, which provides wastewater companies throughout the northwest of England, reveals that storm overflows at two water remedy vegetation have been dumping untreated uncooked sewage since August 22.

One is an outfall at Close to Sawrey sewage works into Cunsey Beck, which flows into Lake Windermere – England’s largest lake. The opposite is at Hawkshead Pumping Station which additionally goes to Windermere. 

Operators of the vegetation, United Utilities, mentioned that the spills had been as a result of ‘heavy rainfall’ within the space, mentioning that there have been climate warnings in place for the world and rainfall over 40mm between August 21 and 27.

Storm overflows are an emergency aid valve for the water community which spills sewage into seas and rivers when there may be heavy rainfall to cease it from backing up into houses.

However there may be mounting proof that implies spills are occurring when there isn’t any heavy rainfall and they don’t completely must.

Campaigners don’t consider water companies claims that heavy rainfall is the explanation for the extreme sewage dumping and as an alternative say the blame is on a scarcity of funding.

Former Undertones singer turned campaigner, Feargal Sharkey, mentioned: ‘Sewage dumping has nothing by any means to do with heavy rain.

‘It’s attributable to greed, profiteering, monetary engineering and regulatory incompetence.

‘Repair these and also you repair the sewage scandal.’

In an interview on BBC Radio 4 Right this moment, the 66-year-old was requested if the non-public felony legal responsibility for water bosses and the banning of bonuses for water bosses within the new water invoice would tackle the problem.

In response, he mentioned: ‘Whitehall has no monopoly in any of this by any means. Welsh Water, for instance, is definitely the most important sewage dumper in the UK. Scotland has any variety of rivers in dangerous ecological situation. Lough Neagh in Northern Eire has been poisoned to the extent that it too now turns inexperienced, like Windermere.

He added: ‘The reality is, the entire legal guidelines there existed for 35 years. All the laws we’d like enforced with enthusiasm, drive and ambition and authorities performs a component in that. 

‘I can’t discover a single instance of any director of any firm anyplace within the UK that has even been prosecuted, by no means thoughts despatched to jail, for a breach of the businesses act. 

‘The reality is, what we actually want is an entire and utter root and department evaluate of the entire sorry mess, this stagnant pool of sewage that we’re all standing in. 

‘We want a system that works and features each for invoice payers and the atmosphere and we have to put an finish to this contemptuous show of water corporations in the previous few days. Stamping their foot, demanding invoice will increase of 40, 50, 60 per cent and if they do not get it they’re now making an attempt to blackmail society that they will undermine the makes an attempt to cope with the housing scarcity. The makes an attempt to construct 1.8 million houses. 

‘That is an absolute outrage that any business would attempt to extort the nation’s society and invoice payers. The federal government must take cost and the regulators must do their jobs.’

Matt Staniek from the Save Windermere marketing campaign, backed by celebrities comparable to Steve Coogan, analysed information from the Setting Company and located that sewage was spilled into the lake for over 9,000 hours in 2023.

He mentioned: ‘United Utilities and different water corporations prioritise dividends over environmental safety, regardless of having funds to forestall sewage dumping into nationwide treasures like Windermere.

‘Their proposed funding is insufficient, fails to deal with core points comparable to quantity, and prices shouldn’t be handed to clients, particularly given proof of illegality.’

A United Utilities spokesperson informed MailOnline: ‘Storm overflows are designed to function throughout heavy rainfall as now we have seen within the Lake District in latest days with greater than double the quantity of common rainfall. Thus far this yr, August has seen extra rainfall than in every other month and it’s the fourth wettest of the 44 months since January 2021.

‘Storm overflows stop houses and companies from flooding. We perceive and share individuals’s issues about their use, which is why now we have invested a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of kilos lately to cut back the variety of instances they function.

‘We have now proposed the largest programme of funding for greater than 100 years between 2025 and 2030 and this contains Elterwater, Hawkshead, Ambleside and Close to Sawrey the place now we have proposed to cut back storm spills by 50% on 2022 figures. We proceed to work with all organisations that impression water high quality within the lake together with farmers, septic tank homeowners, inns, campsites, highways authorities and landowners to ship the step change that all of us need to see.’