The Environment Agency is tasked with looking after our groundwater – specifically "the prevention of pollution of groundwater and protection of it as a resource... to protect and enhance this valuable resource for future generations".
How ‘well’ do you understand groundwater?#Groundwater plays a major role in the water cycle supporting baseflows to #rivers #wetlands & is one of our most precious of raw materials abstracted from wells & boreholes for #drinkingwater #industry #agriculture for #food production pic.twitter.com/OenUPViMIs
— Geoscience EnvAgency (@GeoscienceEA) November 16, 2020
How ‘well’ do you understand groundwater? It’s a good question, and one – given the responses by Professor Brassington – that might be put back to the Environment Agency.
The EA are only human and make mistakes too, as we have previously posted: EA admits it may have made Dawlish sea defences worse, Does the state of our rivers mirror the competency of the EA? EA’s model of Otter Valley groundwater levels “as much as 15m adrift”.
But it's not just that. Plainly the EA isn't properly funded anymore either.
The state of the environment in England in now getting worse. A stark comment from the Environment Agency chair to Defra secretary George Eustice in a letter released to me under #FOI. EA chair Emma Howard Boyd blames 50% cuts to her enforcement budget. https://t.co/P0T4SoCn6O
— George Greenwood (@GeorgeGreenwood) December 28, 2020
Ms Boyd is quoted as saying:
All this is allowing more people and businesses to break the environmental rules
That admission will obviously worry private water users surrounding Straitgate Farm, concerned their water supplies would be – as Professor Brassington warns – 'irreversibly damaged' by Aggregate Industries' quarry proposal.
Locals will be looking for more reassurance than the EA putting out a few tweets.
💧Groundwater might be out of sight but it should never be far from our minds....Think again💡 there is a good chance that the water you are drinking from your tap might just be #groundwater! Many activities can lead to groundwater contamination. #PYGWD Sept 1 2020 pic.twitter.com/GavdB1YL6K— Geoscience EnvAgency (@GeoscienceEA) September 1, 2020
Nevertheless, the EA is right. Groundwater should never be far from our minds, particularly when a sand and gravel quarry is proposed in an area where springs supply drinking water to more than 100 people, an area upstream of precious historical assets like this:
