A man who once ran a fish farm in the Borrowdale valley is getting increasingly concerned about the levels of sewage being swilled into the River Derwent.
Stan Edmondson, 74, contacted The Keswick Reminder after witnessing “black, grey stinking crap” being released from an outflow pipe on the banks of the waterway on Monday, at around 10.30am, while he was out for a walk with his dog.
“Further down the river there are some big deep pools and normally you can see every pebble and fish that is in there,” said Stan, who used to run the Borrowdale Trout Farm. “But on this occasion I could not see through what I call the blue rinse.
“The water that is coming out of the treatment works (at Grange) should be gin clear by today’s standards. There should be no discolouration in that water whatsoever. By the time this sewage gets half a mile down the river it is diluted and looks like quality water but it isn’t because it has all these nutrients.
“The enrichment of Derwentwater is getting critical. It’s getting the algae now.”
Stan reported what he had seen to the Environment Agency hotline as well as United Utilities and is firmly of the opinion that the treatment works can no longer cope with the growth of tourism in the valley. He said that in the last 20 years many of the hotels in the valley have doubled in size.
“It’s got extremely bad in the last four years since lockdown. This valley has been absolutely hammered. It never gets any respite now, it’s choc-a-bloc with people. There are people who retired here for a quieter life who are selling up.
“There is no public footpath along that area of river, so no prying eyes. They (UU) are getting away with it.”
Jodie Mills, director of the West Cumbria Rivers Trust (WCRT) said the current issue of high levels of sewage overflows from treatment works is unacceptable.
“Our umbrella organisation, The Rivers Trust, continues to put pressure on the regulators to hold water companies to account and bring the issue to public consciousness,” she said, adding: “WCRT have applied to Defra to register an area of Derwentwater as a bathing water.
“This will ensure there is regular monitoring of water quality at the lake throughout the summer and help us better understand any potential issues with faecal matter on water quality (which could be of animal or human origin), and provide us with vital information which can be used to advocate for improvements.
“We would like to see more sampling of our waterways and will seek further funding to apply for additional bathing waters to act as a catalyst for change.”
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We took immediate action and attended the site of a potential pollution incident in Grange, as soon as a report was received.
“Our site controller took samples, but at the time of inspection no pollution impacts were detected.
“We take our responsibility to protect the environment very seriously. We will always investigate serious pollution incidents and encourage the public to report any signs of pollution to our hotline on 0800 807060.”
United Utilities said that the water treatment works were operating as normal.
