Water has been very much in the news this summer. Devon's Burrator Reservoir, which serves Plymouth, fell to 41% capacity in July, against 85% at the same time the year before.
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| Image: Alex Hillman |
Meanwhile, Aggregate Industries' consultants visited East Devon again this week to upload groundwater data from Straitgate Farm's array of piezometers. Despite the heatwave and extended dry spell, the level of groundwater in at least one of the boreholes was significantly higher than last August.
"Groundwater is an important strategic resource", according to the Environment Agency:
Compared to surface water, groundwater is often relatively well protected from pollution by the overlying layers of soil and rock. Water passing through these layers is naturally filtered and many pollutants are degraded during the slow passage to the water table. This helps to maintain the relatively good quality of groundwater. This is important both for water-dependent flora and fauna, and for the use of groundwater as a source of drinking water.
At Straitgate, AI wants to remove all the "overlying layers of soil and rock" above the maximum winter water table, leaving groundwater vulnerable to pollution.
The EA warns:
If human activities do pollute groundwater, it is very difficult to return it to its original condition. Processes that take days or weeks in surface water systems may take decades to centuries in groundwater. This is because of the relatively slow rates of groundwater flow and the reduced microbiological activity below the soil zone (due to the general lack of oxygen and nutrients).
Protecting groundwater is essential. The subsurface environment is inaccessible and complex. Groundwater pollution can be very difficult to detect and may not become evident until a water supply or spring is affected. Pollutants may take months or years to migrate from the source to a receptor or to a point where they can be detected.
We must all work together to reduce the risk and therefore the occurrence of groundwater contamination. Trying to clean up groundwater is technically difficult and attempting to do so may even make matters worse... Prevention is far better than cure!
Many local people therefore wonder why the EA is not showing more concern over AI's unorthodox and unproven seasonal working scheme; a scheme that the EA initially believed left a 1m unquarried safety margin, but in reality – after months of obfuscation from AI – was shown to leave no material above the maximum water table, and therefore no safety margin.
Prevention is often cheaper than cure @GeoscienceEA @EnvAgency has a #groundwater protection policy which sets out a framework of guidance within which everyone can ensure groundwater resources are safeguarded for future generations https://t.co/BkLDjEK5BO #GroundwaterProtection pic.twitter.com/GsmZLgLtkV— Geoscience EnvAgency (@GeoscienceEA) August 13, 2018
