Sewage has been flowing into Britain’s rivers and seas once again at nearly 200 sites following the first heavy rain in two months.

Paul Whitehouse travels through the north of England, looking at the impact water companies have on its rivers.

Paul Whitehouse meets local zoologist, conservationist and campaigner Matt Staniek outside the museum to learn more about the water quality of Windermere.

AN INVESTIGATION has been launched after a video showed a large brown blob of unknown origin collecting at the outlet of Far Sawrey treatment works.

William Wordsworth described Windermere as “magnificent and beautiful” but two centuries on it is beset by a toxic soup of sewage and chemicals, with private septic tanks proving a hidden threat.

Matt Staniek, who has become a known local and national figure through his Save Windermere Campaign, does not think that Ambleside Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTWs) would be able to process the sewage coming from the proposed local occupancy and affordable homes at Loughrigg Park.

Some activists are raising funds to allow them to campaign full-time. Matt Staniek, a 26-year-old former zoologist in Windermere, has formed a one-man campaign called Save Windermere to protect England’s biggest lake. “For me, it was the threat to our wildlife that really started my campaign,” Staniek said.

Campaigners are intervening to prevent new houses being occupied in several areas of England until sewage treatment works are upgraded to cope.

Four fifths of the shoreline around Lake Windermere falls short of quality standards, with a majority of water samples showing raised levels of pollutants, a survey has found.

In 2021, the United Utilities Staveley sewage works, near Windermere, spilled untreated sewage into a nearby stream 80 times for a total of 1,172 hours, according to an interactive map by The Rivers Trust which documents sewage spills. This was not a one off; the United Utilities plant at Grasmere spilled 90 times for a total of 1,348 hours.

MATT Staniek does not like London but when he was nominated for a national park protector award he packed a five-litre bottle of blue-green algae and set off to Parliament.

A CHANNEL 5 documentary about waterways in Britain will feature Windermere. One of the episodes will be centred around Windermere and Michaela will be shown around the lake and the River Rothay by activist Matt Staniek.