Once, this landscape in England inspired children’s book author Beatrix Potter. But now Lake Windermere fills with sewage whenever it storms. Yuck! 

Last week, lawmakers in the United Kingdom made a promise. They’re going to clean up Lake Windermere. 

Steve Reed serves as U.K. Environment Secretary. He says all sewage must stop flowing into Windermere, which is England’s largest lake.

You’ll find the lake in the Lake District National Park. That site in northwest England draws millions of visitors each year. You might recognize the scenery from Beatrix Potter books: Woods. Fields. Stone walls. Sheep. 

Ms. Potter lived from 1866 till 1943. Do you remember her famous characters Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle-Duck? Ms. Potter vacationed in the Lake District as a child. Later, when she made money from her books, she bought a farm there. This landscape also inspired poet William Wordsworth.

But the lake gets a lot less inspiring when bad weather comes. Storms overwhelm the local sewage system. Human waste regularly leaks into Windermere. A local water company allowed 37 million gallons of sewage into the lake between 2021 and 2023. The sewage makes the water stink. It makes swimmers sick. It pollutes fishing streams. 

Why the sewage? Old pipes. More people living in a small area. More rain.

Now officials plan to slap fines on polluters. They’ll replace old pipes. Mr. Reed says it could take years before Windemere’s waters are safe to swim in again.

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” — John 7:38