UK Groundwater Forum e-news June 2010

This is the latest e-newsletter from the UK Groundwater Forum. To find out more about the aims and activities of the Forum, please visit our web site. If you received our e-mail from a colleague and would like to be added to the circulation list, please register on the web site.

Contents:

• Annual conference 2010 – Presentations now online
• Water and Sewerage journal article
• New articles on the website – We’ve been busy!
• Feedback from our survey

Please also have a look at our Groundwater News and Meetings & Events pages to find out what’s going on in groundwater.

Annual conference 2010 - Presentations now online

Our annual conference entitled ‘Groundwater’s role in reducing our carbon footprint’ was held on the 26 May 2010 and highlighted how groundwater systems play a part in a low carbon energy future. The day was a big success with over 80 people turning out to hear from industry experts on a range of energy and groundwater topics including geothermal energy, energy crops and carbon capture and storage. All of the presentations from the day are now available for you to view on our web site.

NERC © 2009

Water and Sewerage journal article

In keeping with the theme of our annual conference, the UK Groundwater Forum has produced an article for the Water and Sewerage Journal entitled ‘Groundwater and a changing energy sector’. The article provides a brief overview of some of the topics discussed at our conference including a look at the implications of a changing energy sector on our groundwater systems.

To view the article please visit the Water and Sewerage Journal online

New groundwater articles on the web site

Over the last few months we have been busy collating new articles for our web site and we would like to offer our thanks to those who have contributed to this. Details of the new articles are provided below. If you would like to produce an article for our web site please email us at contact@groundwateruk.org

Source http://de.academic.ru/dic.nsf/dewiki/286758

Groundwater and Pathogens

A comprehensive review about the risk of contamination to groundwater by pathogens has been completed by Brian Morris, formally of the British Geological Survey. Groundwater in the UK is generally of good quality, particularly with respect to pathogens (disease-causing organisms); typically very little treatment is required before it can be consumed. There are some situations however where contamination by pathogens could occur, with a risk to human health. These risks and the measures in place in the UK to manage them are explained in the review.

Read the full review (PDF)

Read the summary article of the review

Reducing the carbon footprint of the Shropshire Groundwater Scheme

Environment Agency © 2009

The Environment Agency has a commitment to reduce their CO2 emissions from 2005/06 levels by 30% (16,800 tonnes) by March 2012. Electricity used to pump water currently makes up almost a third of the Environment Agency’s emissions. In order to help meet their targets, in spring 2009 Midlands Region of the EA undertook a project to assess potential energy efficiency savings, carbon emission reduction and reduced operating costs, through modification of the Shropshire groundwater scheme pump control systems. A summary of the project including an evaluation of the energy savings and emission reductions has been written for the UK groundwater Forum by Kevin Voyce of the Environment Agency.

Read the Shropshire Groundwater Scheme project web page

Surface water flooding: Sustainable drainage to the ground

Glasgow City Council & Scottish Water © 2002

During the exceptional rainfall events of summer 2007, floods inundated 7,300 businesses and 48,000 homes across the UK (PITT Review) with estimated costs of £3.2 billion. A review of the causes and consequences of these events identified that surface water was one of the primary causes of flooding. There is significant emphasis in the UK on the management of surface water via more sustainable drainage; this article, written by Rachel Dearden and Simon Price of the British Geological Survey explains the policy and technical background of sustainable drainage systems (SUDS).

Read the article about sustainable drainage to the ground

Contamination of public drinking water supply boreholes by Bromate

In 2001 Veolia Water Central discovered significant bromate pollution at two public water supply boreholes which abstract water from the Chalk aquifer north of London. Sampling of groundwater successfully identified the source of bromate to be a former chemical works at Sandridge, Hertfordshire. Further site investigation has established the extent of the contaminant plume and shown additional public water supply boreholes to be at risk. Written by Rob Sage of Veolia Water, this article outlines the extent of the pollution and the steps taken to address it. Also highlighted are the difficulties in prosecuting those responsible so that full remediation of the source can be undertaken.

Read the Bromate contamination project web page

Feedback from our web survey

Many thanks to those of you who took part in our web site survey; we were greatly encouraged by the results with nearly all of you responding that our information is easy to find and easy to understand. The most popular areas of our web site are groundwater news items, information on topical groundwater issues and information on groundwater basics. We asked you how you would like the web site to be developed further and you said, ‘online teaching resources’, ‘training course and job listings’ and ‘more downloadable images’. As we move forward we hope we can deliver some of these resources for you.

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