Forum menu
Talking about discharges, a report I saw on the source apportionment for P in Windermere gave an equal split between sewage outfalls, private septic tanks and agriculture. This is where I find the current campaign an utter nonsense because its ire is directed solely at UU with little mention of the other sources.
I think there reason theres a focus on UU is because unlike septic tank owners and farmers we, the public pay UU to do the job properly. It should't be an equal split between those 3 sources, it should be an equal split between two and the total pollution should be a third lower than it is
I disagree with that. We, the public, also pay farmers. We also pay for ameliorating the harm caused by private septic systems. Even if the levels were a third lower, they would far exceed the critical loads for an oligotrophic lake, so blaming a single factor, one that has invested heavily in ameliorating harm, is grossly unproductive. The alternative to storm overflows is that large storage tanks, similar to the old coal gas stores, would have to be installed, or that every surface water drain has to be rerouted to flow direct into the lake.
I'm not saying that UU should be totally absolved, they absolutely should be doing better. But other issues, eg increased sedimentation, also critically affect the breeding sites for Arctic char around the lake. This is caused, in the main, by unsuitable agricultural practices (I have a photo of slurry spreading in January on snow in Langdale which dumps P,N and coliforms into the lake at a time where no primary productivity is taking place).
I remember looking through some reports, once the phosphate strippers were in place and the treated effluent was cleaner than the river water flowing into the lake. It's the storm discharges that are the primary issue from UU. I think they have also committed to invest a further £20m in attempting to further reduce impacts. There's nothing proposed for septic tanks (the Fish Police turn a blind eye) and agriculture continues to dump tons of nutrients in the catchment with little reduction.