Wednesday 14 August 2019

EA: ‘We all have a role to play protecting our precious groundwater’


Professor Brassington, in a response relating to Aggregate Industries' planning application to quarry Straitgate Farm, made the comment:
In my opinion the proposal that removes most of the unsaturated zone in an aquifer that is fragile is too risky and presents too much of a hazard to the water supplies of a large number of people in addition to those supplies for Cadhay House and its mediaeval fishponds and ancient woodlands.
The EA has a slogan that they work to create better places for people and wildlife and support sustainable development. In my view both the local environment and the local people will suffer, and the proposals are not environmentally sustainable.
The Professor of Hydrogeology, who has more than 50 years of professional experience in the subject, is "totally opposed to the idea of this quarrying being allowed to go ahead." He recognises that:
The groundwater resources that lie beneath the area around the proposed Straitgate Farm site are fundamental to the lives of more than 100 people in their homes and to the local businesses that they run.
Thankfully, at last, the EA now wants AI to address the Professor’s water concerns. And you would hope so too, for goodness sake. Let's repeat the Environment Agency's raison d'être:
It's our job to look after your environment and create better places for people and wildlife.
It's not the EA's job to make life easier for international cement conglomerates, to rubber stamp unorthodox working schemes which fly in the face of a multitude of issues, not least of which, as Prof Brassington points out:
..the computer model derived MWWT surface [the ‘maximum winter water table’, the base of any quarry] is unlikely to provide an accurate representation of the real maximum groundwater levels.
The EA is the statutory body responsible for the protection and management of groundwater resources. An EA source protection zone covers part of Straitgate. The EA's Groundwater & Contaminated Land teams tweet about "our precious groundwater resources" – as above and below, for example:


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