The government has said it will “clean up Windermere” after criticism over the volume of sewage being pumped into England’s largest lake.
The environment secretary, Steve Reed, pledged “only rainwater” would enter the famous body of water in the Lake District, putting an end to the situation where it Windermere was being “choked by unacceptable levels of sewage pollution”.
Reed highlighted a range of measures being put in place, including investment from the water company United Utilities. The company, which has been a major polluter of the Unesco world heritage site, recently conceded defeat in its legal efforts to block the public from accessing data related to how much sewage it was dumping into the lake.
United Utilities had argued that information on how much phosphorus was being detected at a main sewage treatment works on Windermere did not fall into publicly accessible environmental information.
On top of legal discharges made by the company into the important habitat, various investigations have found it also illegally dumped millions of litres of raw sewage into the watercourse.
Reed and the water minister, Emma Hardy, will be in Windermere on Monday as part of a “Things Can Only Get Cleaner” tour, to see where investment in water infrastructure will underpin the building of new homes, create jobs and bolster local economies.
Reed said: “Windermere is a stunningly beautiful national treasure – but it’s being choked by unacceptable levels of sewage pollution.”
He added that the government was “committed to cleaning up this iconic lake” as part of its Plan for Change scheme to upgrade the crumbling water infrastructure and increase economic growth using more than £100bn of private investment.
The government was also working “to stop all sewage going into the lake and restore it to its natural beauty”, Reed added.
Local groups and organisations have set up a feasibility study to look into what is needed to eliminate sewage discharges into Windermere and draw on successful examples and innovation from around the world.
The study has been set up by a coalition that includes United Utilities, the Environment Agency, Ofwat, Save Windermere, Love Windermere, the Lake District national park authority and Westmorland and Furness council.
A £200 investment from United Utilities will go towards upgrading 10 wastewater treatment works at Windermere and reducing spills from four storm overflows discharging into the lake to two a year by 2030. Upgrades to the remaining two storm overflows are due from around 2030-35.
The private sector money will go towards sewage pipes, water treatment works and nine reservoirs, supporting 1.5 m new homes, 150 large infrastructure projects and power industries such as gigafactories and datacentres.
Money from water company fines and penalties has been ringfenced to deliver local water projects, and schemes to clean up waterways are to get up to £11m.
Windermere is home to more than 14,000 people and its scenery, rare species and cultural heritage attract seven million visitors a year, generating £750m for the local economy.
