Raw sewage pumped into Lake Windermere illegally for 10 hours

Millions of litres of raw sewage has been found to have been illegally gone into Lake Windermere.

It lasted for 10 hours back in February - and it's been reported the Environment Agency were not informed until 13 hours after it was first started.

United Utilities say it was caused by an unexpected fault in the area with a third party which they weren't notified about.

They add as soon as they were told, urgent steps were taken by engineers to fix the issue.

A United Utilities spokesperson said:

“This incident was caused by an unexpected fault on the third party telecoms cable network in the area, which United Utilities was not notified about and which affected both the primary system and United Utilities’ backup.

"As soon as we discovered this fault was affecting the Glebe Road pumping station, our engineers took urgent steps to resolve the situation and we informed the Environment Agency within an hour of the pollution being confirmed.”

An Environment Agency spokesperson said:

“The pollution incident at Bowness was reported to us by United Utilities as the result of a major communication failure in the area which affected pumps at the waste water treatment works. Our officer attended the scene to confirm with UU that the discharge had ceased and to carry out water sampling in areas affected.

“We are undertaking a thorough investigation into the incident which involves examining further evidence from United Utilities. If we determine a permit breach has taken place, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action. If any water company is found to be in breach of an environmental permit, the Environment Agency will take the appropriate enforcement action up to and including a criminal prosecution.”

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