Fresh row over state of water in England after Lake Windermere sewage incident
Millions of litres of raw sewage was pumped in illegally
A fresh row has broken out of over the state of England's waters as the bathing season starts, following reports millions of litres of raw sewage were pumped into Lake Windermere.
A fault at a pumping station left sewage being illegally pumped into the famous lake for 10 hours in February.
The situation was labelled a "scandal" by opposition politicians, while Downing Street said it was "completely unacceptable" and the Environment Agency had the power to launch a criminal prosecution if necessary.
The revelations come as the annual bathing season kicks off, with the Environment Agency monitoring 451 coastal, river and lake sites throughout the summer for water quality.
Samples are tested in labs and uploaded to the Swimfo website which updates daily with information on water quality, and provides risk forecasting information which warns people about poor water quality due to bad weather or pollution incidents.
Windermere is a popular swimming lake, with four designated bathing sites.
The latest revelations come after analysis by Friends of the Earth showed more than 440,000 hours of sewage was released along England's coastline in 2023, with thousands of spills taking place close to bathing spots.
Shadow environment secretary Steve Reed said of the news that pollution was illegally pumped into Windermere:
"The Conservatives just folded their arms and looked the other way while United Utilities pumped a tidal wave of raw sewage into Britain's most beautiful lake.
"The next Labour government will put the water companies under special measures to force United Utilities to clean up their toxic mess.
"We will give the regulator tough new powers to make law-breaking water bosses face criminal charges and ban the payment of their multimillion-pound bonuses until they clean up their toxic filth."
Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson & local MP for Windermere Tim Farron said:
"This is a scandal. We can't let them get away with this any longer.
"The public are rightly furious that their favourite local rivers and lakes are being spoiled while water company bosses accept huge bonuses."
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said:
"Sewage discharge into our waters like this is completely unacceptable and water companies need to clean up their act.
"It's why we've announced a quadrupling of inspections on water company assets, Ofwat are consulting on banning water bosses' bonuses, Ofwat have stronger powers under the Environment Act now to hold them to account for poor performance."
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."