Tourism mode activated in Windermere

It's not just the hotels and B&Bs of Windermere that prepare for the influx of visitors to the area during the summer months. We step into tourist mode too, to make sure we're geared up for all those turning taps and extra toilet flushes.

Andrew Kendall, Cumbria county business leader, tells us how we prepare our wastewater services to cope with the increased demand. In his own words, Andrew says he's 'a proud Cumbrian'. He started his career at UU as an apprentice back in 2001, spending his first day at Windermere treatment works. 

Andrew, tell us, when do your preparations for the busy summer season begin?

Our preparations start around eight weeks before Easter, at which point we slowly add ammonium sulphate into our treatment process. Adding this helps the microorganisms in the process gradually adapt to increased levels of ammonia before the extra visitors arrive. We call these the “good bugs”.

These “good bugs” eat the nutrients and clean the water for us. With specific conditions these bugs grow and multiply, removing ammonia and treating the wastewater. The more bugs we have cleaning the water, the quicker we can send the wastewater to the next stage of the treatment process.

So how does the volume fluctuate during peak tourist season?

Our wastewater treatment works are sized to treat the sewage from maximum population numbers at peak times and use the highest treatment standards including phosphorus removal and UV treatment to kill bacteria.

What extra processes do you have at Windermere to ensure treated wastewater is bathing water quality?

The final step before we return the water to the environment is to give the water a suntan! Believe it or not UV technology is very effective at killing bacteria. This is an extra level of treatment we’ve installed to protect Windermere’s four bathing waters.

We shine UV light tubes into the water (just like the light bulbs you would find on a sunbed). We have sensitive monitors constantly measuring how clear the water is and how much flow there is. This tells the plant how many banks of ultra-violet light bulbs need to be switched on in order to zap enough light energy into the treated sewage to kill the bacteria.

This final stage of treatment makes sure the treated wastewater is of the highest quality before it returns to the environment.

We are really pleased that the four bathing sites in Windermere have once again been rated excellent by the Environment Agency in the latest round of classifications. The results of this are based on samples taken from each of the four sites, Fell Foot, Lakeside YMCA, Millerground Landing and Rayrigg Meadow, throughout the bathing waters season which runs from May to September.

What does United Utilities have planned to further improve Windermere’s water quality?

We’ve been listening to what people have to say – and no-one wants to see sewage from storm overflows discharged into rivers. We get that and are up and running with an ambitious plan to tackle this and deliver the largest environmental improvement in the country. In Windermere, we’re going even further investing £200 million to help improve and protect water quality the lake.

This funding will enhance our treatment works, and its associated infrastructure and treat wastewater to even higher standards across Windermere, reducing the amount of phosphorus entering the lake.

We’ll be making improvements across nine wastewater treatment works and all six storm overflows that discharge into the lake and deliver a further step change in wastewater treatment.

This would see improvements to wastewater treatment sites at: Ambleside, Far Sawrey, Ferry House, Grasmere, Hawkshead, Langdale, Near Sawrey, Outgate and Troutbeck.

The investment will improve treatment processes for phosphorus, ammonia, suspended solids and biological oxygen demand across those sites and the improvements to each of the 6 storm overflows will reduce spills to an average of 10 per annum.

In addition to this work at Windermere, we also have a multi-million-pound project underway at Staveley to enhance the infrastructure and we’re fast-tracking new solutions at 28 sites across the North West this summer, including Cark-in-Cartmel. The work will increase treatment and storage capacity, limiting the chances of the works becoming overwhelmed during periods of heavy rainfall and reducing the number of times the storm overflows at these locations will operate, helping to reduce storm overflow spills by 60% over the decade to 2030.

Don't forget, when you're in the area, to pop along to the Information Centre on 8 Cresent Road, Windermere, LA23 1EA.

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