Springs appear when groundwater levels are high

For anyone wondering why a spring might appear in the area Aggregate Industries has designated for the storage of overburden, as we recently posted about here and here – an area where, to facilitate like-on-like soil storage, the company would first have to excavate topsoils and subsoils without breaching the maximum water table – the following rainfall anomaly maps should provide a clue:

Groundwater measurements were taken from all the boreholes around Straitgate Farm last week by consultants working on behalf of Aggregate Industries. The groundwater level in at least one borehole was as high as 2014 levels for the same time of year – 2014 being the year when most of the highest water levels were recorded at the site, even though there were only 6 boreholes around the proposed extraction area – not the current 13, with another 5 further afield.

 

Confirmation, should you need it, that May was very wet.

Up to Tuesday most areas of England had received about twice the average monthly rainfall.

Unsurprisingly many river flows are exceptionally high and ground conditions sensitive to more rain

Fortunately outlook is drier pic.twitter.com/lgUUChRkY4

— Dave Throup (@DaveThroupEA) May 28, 2021

Why are summer groundwater levels important? Aggregate Industries' unorthodox, untried, untested, seasonal working scheme relies on groundwater levels falling by at least 1m during the summer. We have pointed out that there are several areas where this seasonal scheme can't work. 

Will we be told if any of the other boreholes have recorded particularly high groundwater levels this summer? No. In 2018, when its model of the maximum water table – which had been "defined with confidence" and "builds in a conservatism" – was exceeded in four places by up to 1.6m, Aggregate Industries in its embarrassment put a stop to the public scrutiny of groundwater data for the Straitgate application, "in-line with company policy".