They just dump the sewage in the lake? No wonder they get algae blooms.
this post was submitted on 07 May 2024
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UK Nature and Environment
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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.
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.
And given the utility in question is United utilities I'm not trusting a single thing they say.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A report funded by the UK space agency suggests a link between peak tourist periods and algal blooming at Windermere in the Lake District.
He wanted to study whether the blooms are just the inevitable consequence of climate change and hotter, drier summers, or whether human discharges are also playing a role.
With funding from the UK space agency, Map Impact used infrared analysis of satellite images to measure chlorophyll levels over the last five years in Lake Windermere.
Heat is one of the main drivers of algal blooming and though hot summer days are also likely to boost visitor numbers, Mr Flemmings says it has been possible to separate out the two factors.
Barney Cunliffe runs the Michelin starred Gilpin Hotel near the lake and has joined with others in the hospitality industry to raise money for the Save Windermere campaign.
Mr Cunliffe says he's worried that if nothing changes there might be what he calls "a catastrophic event" on the horizon - a massive algal bloom that effectively kills the lake and deals a serious blow to tourism and the local economy.
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