Now the company is readying a long-term fix following a feasibility study that will finish next month and be published in September. Engineers and local groups have looked at more than a hundred options to divert effluent, raw sewage and runoff from roads away from Windermere.<\/p>\n
Louise Beardmore, the company\u2019s chief executive, said: \u201cEssentially, what we\u2019ve been working on is an interceptor sewer, tunnelled around the lake, and that will take all of those discharges away to an upgraded treatment works.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Speaking at the Lake District Book Festival, she told The Times: \u201cIt will mean that we\u2019ll be able to return the lake to as clear and pure as it possibly can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project is expected to involve tunnelling to minimise disruption to local people, piping pollutants away from the catchment for treatment elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The move to a long-term solution marks a significant shift by the company, which has spent \u00a375 million since 2000 on upgrading sewage treatment plants and other infrastructure. A further \u00a3200 million will be invested by 2030.<\/p>\n
The new approach is modelled on the clean-up of Lake Annecy in France. Once plagued by wastewater, a significant infrastructure push in the 1960s and 1970s transformed it into one of Europe\u2019s cleanest lakes.<\/p>\n
Matt Staniek, of the campaign group Save Windermere<\/a>, who has been lobbying for an Annecy-style overhaul, said he hoped the project would come to define how the UK valued nature. \u201cWe have such an anthropocentric point of view in the western world \u2014 that it\u2019s people then nature. I think this flips in on its head,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n There is still a lot of detail to flesh out on the Windermere rescue plan. How much the new scheme will cost, how it will be paid for, the route for the tunnel and where the eventual treatment of sewage takes place have all yet to be determined.<\/p>\n Staniek said: \u201cWe can\u2019t be just moving the problem [elsewhere].\u201d<\/p>\n The scale of the project suggests it may have to be funded apart from the usual five-year spending periods regulators allocate to water companies. One model could be the \u00a34.6 billion Thames Tideway tunnel that will ultimately be paid for by Thames Water customers<\/a> over several decades.<\/p>\n Steve Reed, the environment secretary at the time, last year promised to stop sewage reaching the lake but set no deadline for doing so and did not commit the government to giving financial support.<\/p>\n United Utilities indicated the Windermere project could take seven years to build. The company is proposing the lake would be clean enough to host outdoor freshwater sporting events if the north of England\u2019s bid to host the 2040 Olympic Games<\/a> is successful.<\/p>\n The timeline implies the firm would have to move fast to win regulatory approval and raise financing, amid a backdrop of wider government reforms to the water sector.<\/p>\n![\"Blue-green](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/e53fecd7-020d-46b8-a3b3-6612605a3921.jpg\")
Warmer temperatures make algal blooms more likely \u2026Alamy<\/p>\n![\"Blue-green](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f35ed530-3f04-4720-bf56-ac582e7aced3.jpg\")
\u2026 exacerbated by sewage spillsAlamy<\/p>\n