Keswick held its collective breath this week as a significant amount of rain fell on the town over a number of days leading to flooding fears.
But there were no serious incidents reported in the area despite the water in Thirlmere over-topping by almost half a metre earlier this week leading to Keswick Flood Action Group calling for United Utilities to give the group more control of releases from the reservoir to free up storm space.
Environment Agency figures for Thirlmere on Thursday showed that the water level on the reservoir on Tuesday night hit 17.03m – high above the “normal” range of water. Yet it is still short of the highest-ever level recorded there which was 18.04m during devastating Storm Desmond on December 5, 2015.
“If United Utilities do not make sufficient releases before a storm to manage peak flows they increase Keswick’s flood risk from the river Greta. Reservoir overflow is not an act of God.
“By not taking action, UU are complicit in the considerably greater risk of damage to farmland by unplanned, uncontrollable flows when the reservoir overtops. We believe that there is a duty of care that a reservoir operator should have to the community living below its assets.
“The problem was the amount of water coming out of Thirlmere and there is some more water to come through at the weekend.
“If you get a series of rainfall events it’s not the first one that does us it’s the ones that come after that. You cannot hold back water that is already stored and if all the peat bogs are full and the ground is saturated then it just comes down phenomenally.
“It’s a worry that the reservoir is overflowing now and we have got another two months until March before we can breathe a sigh of relief that it’s all over. It’s not a good place to be at this time of year.”
She added that United Utilities should be looking at managing peak flows at Thirlmere and one way of doing that was to give the flood action group “some real power” to release flows from the reservoir.
As is so often the case during prolonged spells of rain, the Keswick Campsite area – which can be at the epicentre of rapidly-rising water levels in both Derwentwater and the rivers Greta and Derwent – was the subject of an Environment Agency “flood warning”, which is the second highest level of alert issued behind a severe flood warning and more serious than a flood alert.
Areas around Derwentwater and the Borrowdale Valley were subject to flood alerts.
There were breaches of the B5289 through the valley and alerts for rising water levels across Grange, Rosthwaite, Stonethwaite and Seatoller.
Fields around Seatoller Farm were turned into lagoons with becks breaching their banks and dozens of expectant Herdwick ewes moved to higher ground by local farmers.
Statistics show that Honister and Seatoller received more than 100mm of rain while Dalehead got 68mm with more precipitation forecast over the coming days.
The Lake District Weatherline said showers would be “occasionally heavy” with longer periods of rain and summit snow at times particularly in the early morning and during Friday evening.
Saturday would also bring periods of rain and summit snow clearing to brighter spells and further showers. On Sunday, showers are expected to be heavier and more frequent early then dwindling later,
A spokesman for United Utilities said: “We are working with the Environment Agency to help us understand how best to balance environmental impacts, downstream flooding and water resources requirements at Thirlmere.
“This will help to determine whether any modification to the current flood triggers is appropriate. While this work is underway we cannot make any modifications to the current release regime.”
