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Tourist influx turns Windermere green, researchers say (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A report funded by the UK space agency suggests a link between peak tourist periods and algal blooming at Windermere in the Lake District.

Algal blooming is caused by warm temperatures and nutrients, and can make the water green and toxic.

Campaigners are linking the blooms to discharges of sewage, which although mostly treated, are nutrient-rich.

United Utilities, the local water company, insists its wastewater plants can cope with peak tourist periods.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (3 children)

They just dump the sewage in the lake? No wonder they get algae blooms.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

If you believe the water company, it's just treated sewage and it's going into the rivers that feed the lake.

The problem is that 'treated' sewage is still kinda dirty and has lots of nutrients that feed the blooms still.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Yeah. Farmland generally doesn't help much either. I'm in Sweden and the baltic sea is basically dead partially due to sewage and farming, and partially due to fishing rules leading to people throwing back fish which subsequently die from the rapid pressure change, leaving more stuff to decompose and suck up all the available oxygen. The oxygenation of the baltic sea is also heavily dependant on storms, and thanks to climate change those have been a bit more wonky.

The problem isn't necessarily the cyanobacteria themselves, they are toxic, but they do increase the amount of available oxygen. The problem is that when they die, they decompose and the bacteria that break them down use up all the available oxygen, slowly suffocating the sea. Or well, lake in this case.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

And given the utility in question is United utilities I'm not trusting a single thing they say.