The “jewel in the crown” of the Lake District National Park, is “being used as an open sewer”, in the words of one anti-pollution campaigner, as a BBC investigation revealed that, between 2021 and 2023, United Utilities illegally dumped more than 143 million litres of raw sewage into Lake Windermere.
Although wastewater is usually sent to a sewage treatment works, water companies are allowed to release untreated sewage at designated times when heavy rainfall threatens to overwhelm capacity and risk homes being flooded.
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A ‘dismal tale’
‘Great Stink’
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