The aquifer at Straitgate Farm supplies many people with drinking water.
For a proposal that would permanently remove a large part of the unsaturated zone above the aquifer, and permanently change the landscape, it beggars belief that neither Aggregate Industries nor its hydrogeology consultants have considered the effect of climate change on the groundwater at Straitgate.
In fact, the number of occurrences of the word climate in Aggregate Industries’ Hydrogeological Assessment is precisely zero. It’s a big omission.
It is an irrefutable fact that our climate is changing, that rainfall patterns are changing:
The overarching picture is warmer, wetter winters; hotter, drier summers
It is important that project designers incorporate climate resilience into the design of the project at an early stage. This means evaluating what resilience measures may be appropriate to include in the design, and this should take place at all stages of design development – from optioneering through to detailed design, not just as a part of the EIA process.
Whilst Aggregate Industries has not considered the impact of climate change on groundwater levels at Straitgate, Professor Brassington has. His Note on the impact of climate change on the proposed quarrying at Straitgate Farm has now been submitted to Devon County Council:
The main impact of climate change will be the fact that the winter water table will be at a higher elevation than it is now. If this planning permission is granted a common-sense view would be that the rise in the water table that will happen caused by climate change should be accommodated by adding an additional amount to the calculations to account for the additional recharge and the water table rise.
Of course, the water table at a higher elevation could obviously affect surface water run-off and flooding to downstream communities; the water table at a higher elevation could leave parts of the restored landscape underwater and unfarmable. Aggregate Industries' consultants have assessed none of this.
And there's another problem. Prof Brassington has already warned that the proposal would permanently change the chemistry of the groundwater, making drinking water sources forever too acidic. In this new report he warns that climate change will exacerbate the problem.
The proposal to remove the unsaturated zone will halve the time available for rock-water interaction which is the main process by which the pH of the water is neutralized from an acidic value of some pH 4.5 which will mean that the water will not be fit for drinking. As a result of the factors discussed in this report, climate change will exacerbate the problem. The BSPB aquifer in the Straitgate Farm area must be regarded as a fragile groundwater system because it lies at the upper end of an aquifer that has springs located only a short distance from the recharge area.
Prof Brassington concludes:
The simplest thing would be for the planning authority to refuse permission.
And who can argue with that?
