Windermere sewage tunnel will have a second end, Lake District study warns
Our study of United Utilities' proposed 12-mile tunnel finds the sewage will still be sewage when it comes out.
The plan is real. United Utilities, the Environment Agency and local campaigners want a 12-mile tunnel to carry sewage away from Windermere, England's largest lake. My team spent three months studying it. We have found a serious problem with tunnels.
Tunnels have two ends. We did not assume this. We tested it on three tunnels, which is our sample size. We also used a control group, meaning something we could compare against. Ours was a lake with no tunnel at all. In every case, the tunnel had one end where things went in. It also had a second end, where the same things came out. We measured both ends on a Sunday, then again on the next Sunday, because nobody liked the first answer.
The odds that this is a fluke are close to nothing. The sewage does not stop being sewage. It travels for 12 miles and arrives somewhere new.
"I keep thinking about the other end," said one of my three researchers, who has since asked to move to soil.
The lake would probably recover. Fewer toxic algal blooms. People might swim again. We noted this and moved on.
Our next study will find out where the other end is. Early results suggest it is downhill.
