Treated Sewage Flows Into Bassenthwaite Lake (No.1)

EDM number 539 in 1992-93, proposed by DN Campbell-Savours on 16/07/1992.

That this House calls upon Her Majesty's Government to promote and undertake the fullest possible enquiries into the destruction of the ecological balance of Lake Bassenthwaite; believes that the lake is slowly dying; notes that a large number of people including environmentalists, anglers and other lake users are reporting large areas of the lake being contaminated by blue green anabaena algae arising from toxic reactions in the lake, causing skin irritation in humans and major damage to wildlife; notes the very constructive work carried out by the National Rivers Authority on the effect of such environmental damage and toxic reactions; notes that the National Rivers Authority has defined the lake as sensitive under the EEC directive and is seeking such designation of the lake from the DOE in discussions with the Commission; believes that the deposition of treated sewage in the lake in the form of water from the Bassenthwaite, Thornwaite, Keswick, Dubwath, Armathwaite Hall Hotel, and other hotel and caravan park treatment plants must somehow be connected with the lake's deteriorating ecological balance; and notes that the treatment plant effluent pipe from Armathwaite Hall, which runs into Bassenthwaite Lake, is accessible from a manhole cover on the roadside adjacent to the hotel and that foul smells of sewage due to pipework on occasions permeate the whole area surrounding the manhole cover often upsetting visitors.

This motion has been signed by a total of 21 MPs.