British Hydrogeology - a brief history
by John Mather, Emeritus Professor of Geology, University of London
This article is an abstract from a collection of papers originating from a
meeting held in 2002 on the history of hydrogeology in Britain. Further
information can be found in the Geological Society Special Publication
200 Years of British Hydrogeology (Mather, 2004).
Hydrogeology: the early days
In Britain many practical applications of geology originate with William
Smith (1769-1839) and hydrogeology is no exception. His first known order of
strata, drawn up in 1797, shows that he had a good understanding of the
stratigraphic control of spring lines, as well as the significance of
hydraulic head. His pupil,
John Farey (1766-1826), recognised the significance
of Smith's work and applied it to the sinking of deep wells, particularly in
the Thames basin (Farey, 1807).
The early members of the Geological Society of London were involved in the
collection of facts by experiment or observation in order to provide a basis
for geological theories (Rudwick, 1963). In 1818 one of their members, William
Phillips (1775-1828), summarised published strata descriptions to provide an
outline of the geology of England and Wales (Phillips, 1818). Although this
contained little concerning groundwater, the second edition, to which William
Daniel Conybeare (1787-1857) added much original material, contains a section
on water and springs following each formation description (Conybeare and
Phillips, 1822). Water levels in four wells over a distance of 15 miles from
the River Thames to Epping are plotted on a diagram which is probably the
earliest British hydrogeological cross-section.
In the early part of the nineteenth century significant advances in the
study of groundwater were being made in France largely as a result of the
drilling of artesian wells. The term artesian was not used by Conybeare and
Phillips (1822) although they described the phenomenon of overflowing wells.
The term seems to have first appeared in British journals about 1823 the year
in which John Farey called for the translation of relevant material published
abroad (Farey, 1823). The theory behind the occurrence of artesian flow was
well understood by
William Buckland (1784-1856), who produced excellent
explanatory sections in his Bridgewater Treatise (Buckland, 1836), based
largely on French texts available in English in the 1830s.
From the 1820s onwards, papers related to groundwater began to appear in
the Transactions and Proceedings of the Geological Society and from 1836 in
the Transactions of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Many of the published
items are merely descriptions of wells or boreholes together with the strata
intersected. However, in 1831 the Proceedings of the Geological Society record
that a letter was read "On the Influence of Season over the Depth of Water in
Wells". The work was later published in the Philosophical Magazine (Bland,
1832) and described a series of monthly observations made in a well near
Sittingbourne in Kent from January 1819 to June 1831. These observations
represent the first systematic British record of fluctuations in groundwater
level. Bland also measured the water levels along three traverses across the
Chalk and was able to demonstate that the height to which water rose in wells
correlated with the rise and fall of the hills (Bland, 1832).
Exploitation of groundwater grows
By 1840 the construction of artesian wells and boreholes was generally
understood and many had been sunk or drilled (Mylne, 1840). Many boreholes
failed because they were drilled by engineers with no geological background
who assumed that you could drill almost anywhere and find artesian water
(see Farey, 1822).
By 1840 the provision of an adequate water supply for London had become a
major issue. Most parts of London were supplied either from shallow wells
subject to contamination or from the highly polluted River Thames. In 1840 the
distinguished engineer
Robert Stephenson (1803-1859) was commissioned to
identify an alternative supply. He proposed to supply north west London from
a well into the unconfined Chalk at Bushey Meads near Watford in Hertfordshire.
Stephenson's proposals were based on the premise that recharge was so rapid
that there was little evaporation and most of the rainfall accumulated in
the lower part of the Chalk forming an enormous natural reservoir from which
water could be abstracted without affecting surface springs and streams.
The scheme was vigorously opposed by a number of local landowners and mill-owners
and in particular by the Reverend James Charles Clutterbuck (1801-1885) the vicar of
Long Wittenham in Oxfordshire but a native of Watford. Pamphlets and counter-pamphlets
were issued and the debate became extremely acrimonious. The debate demonstrated how
significantly knowledge of groundwater had advanced since 1800. Stephenson (1841)
accurately described the shape of the cone of depression around a pumping well.
Clutterbuck began a series of detailed systematic observations of groundwater levels
the conclusions from which were reported in a series of presentations to the
Institution of Civil Engineers (Clutterbuck, 1842, 1843 and 1850). His observations
enabled him to recognise the intimate relationship between surface water and
groundwater, the depressed water levels beneath London caused by pumping, and the
possibility of saline intrusion into the Chalk from the River Thames. He was the
first British worker to apply observations of groundwater levels in a practical and
innovative way to the study of groundwater flow.
In 1850,
Joseph Prestwich (1812-1896), later to become Professor of
Geology at the University of Oxford, also became interested in the problems
of London's water supply. He suggested that the Upper and Lower Greensands
beneath London might provide a suitable source. His book (Prestwich, 1851)
became widely quoted and used. Although the Lower Greensand had a more
limited range beneath London than Prestwich envisaged, and hence never
yielded the volume of water anticipated, the book presents a review of the
geology of the country around London followed by an appraisal of the
hydrogeological properties of the various formations and provides a map and
sections which divide the strata according to their permeability
(Prestwich, 1851). The map is the first British geological map to show
hydrogeological information.
Water quality became an issue early in the century but it was not until
1854 that
John Snow (1813-1858), working in Westminster, demonstrated beyond
doubt that cholera was spread by contamination of drinking water. Subsequent
research showed that sewage effluent derived from a local cesspool was to
blame. Snow's study represents one of the first, if not the first, study of
an incident of groundwater contamination in Britain.
Analysts became more confident in their determination of the constituents
of water. Mineral springs became field sites for testing developments in
analytical chemistry, but doubts about the true composition of such waters
remained. As early as 1850,
Lyon Playfair (1819-1898), at that time the
chemist at the School of Mines, provided an excellent description of cation
exchange in Chalk groundwaters (Playfair in discussion of Clutterbuck, 1850
p160). However, most of the early papers published by chemists were reports
on the species dissolved in groundwater although some speculated on the
source of groundwater and how it achieved its composition (Campbell, 1857).
The Report of the Royal Commission on Water Supply (1869) shows that, by
1869, a number of large conurbations were supplied by groundwater. Nottingham
and parts of Liverpool and Birkenhead relied on wells in the Permo-Triassic
sandstones, Sunderland and South Shields on the Permian Magnesian Limestone
and Croydon and parts of south east London on the Chalk. Government offices
around Westminster together with the fountains in Trafalgar Square were
supplied by wells sunk to the Chalk in 1844 (Amos, 1860).
Hydrogeology in the Geological Survey
Prior to 1870 the Geological Survey of Great Britain made little contribution
to the application of geology to water supply. As early as 1850, some 15 years
after its formation and under its first Director
Henry Thomas de la Beche
(1796-1855), complaints were already being made that mapping work should be
transferred from North Wales, where no need existed for early geological
information, to the metropolitan districts to investigate the deep
water-bearing strata (Clutterbuck, 1850). The second Director of the Survey,
Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871), was a distinguished gentleman geologist,
who had little interest in the economic applications of geology (Flett, 1937).
However, after Murchison's death in 1871 the number of memoir pages devoted to
well sections increased enormously covering some 141 pages in the London Basin
Memoir (Whitaker, 1872). Subsequently all memoirs relating to south east
England had lists of well sections and information concerning water supply.
Eventually these lists came to dominate the geological memoirs such that in
1899 the first Water Supply Memoir, on Sussex, was produced (Whitaker and
Reid, 1899). Many of the memoirs were authored by William Whitaker (1836-1925)
who had joined the Survey in 1857. Whitaker was an assiduous collector of
records of well sections and temporary exposures, but made little use of the
data he collected, preparing lists of information rather than using this
information to understand hydrogeological processes.
Joseph Lucas (1846-1926) joined the Geological Survey in 1867 and spent 9
years mapping in Yorkshire before being forced to resign for a disciplinary
offence. In 1874, whilst still with the Survey, he was the first person to use
the term "hydrogeology" in its modern context (Lucas, 1874; Mather, 2001) and
defined this new subject in a series of papers in the 1870s (e.g., Lucas,
1877a). He used water level data to draw the first British maps showing
groundwater contours and described how to carry out a hydrogeological survey
(Lucas, 1874 and 1877b).
The third geologist in the Survey to make an impact was Charles Eugene de
Rance (1847-1906) who joined in 1868, the year after Lucas. On behalf of the
Survey he assisted the Rivers Pollution Commission in the preparation of its
sixth report on domestic water supply (Rivers Pollution Commission, 1875).
The Commissioners concluded that "spring waters" and "deep well waters" were
the best sources of supply providing wholesome and palatable water for
drinking and cooking. This testimonial provided a boost to the development of
groundwater.
In the latter part of the 19th century the involvement of the Geological
Survey was but one part of a trend which saw the study of the geological
aspects of water supply become respectable.
Joseph Prestwich was elected
President of the Geological Society in 1870 and in 1872 chose as the subject
of his Presidential Address "Our Springs and Water-supply and Our Coal-measures
and Coal-supply" (Prestwich, 1872). In 1876 his successor
John Evans
(1823-1908) also chose "Water Supply" as one of the topics of his Presidential
Address (Evans, 1876) and in 1898 Whitaker was elected President choosing
"Water-supply and Sanitation" as his first topic (Whitaker, 1899).
Understanding of groundwater grows
Throughout the country groundwater was now being exploited for both urban and
rural supplies and geologists, chemists and engineers were involved in
exploration and development. Numerous papers and reports appeared, many
emphasising the vastness of the underground water supplies available. The
debate about supplying London from the Chalk continued with geologists
highlighting the interdependence of groundwater and surface water and the
dangers of overexploitation (e.g. Evans, 1876) whilst most engineers still
considered that rivers took their supply "from the skin of the chalk
formation" with a much larger quantity of water available for extraction from
"the great body of the Chalk below" ( Harrison, 1891 p21). Nearly all the work
was concentrated in England largely because of the abundance of good quality
surface waters in Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
In the years between 1900 and 1938 the Geological Survey published 27 Water
Supply Memoirs. These consisted mostly of records of wells and boreholes many
of which could be characterised as "unchecked records of wells that have been
sunk through ill-defined strata" (Bailey, 1952 p202). These memoirs adopted a
descriptive approach and progress compared very unfavourably with that made by
the United States Geological Survey during this period. Some workers knew of
the pioneering work going on in the USA and Europe and were able to use it to
examine groundwater flow in British aquifers (e.g. Baldwin-Wiseman, 1907).
Later Norman Savage Boulton (1899-1984), in work which predated that of Theis
in the USA, examined the time-variant flow to a pumped well in a confined
aquifer. However, to his great disappointment his manuscript was rejected for
publication, a sad reflection of the conservative views of his peers in the UK
in the early 1930s.
In 1901 the origin of alkaline waters in the chalk was explained by the
gradual dissolution of sodium carbonate (Fisher, 1901). Later John Clough
Thresh (1850-1932) showed that the rocks themselves possessed "the power of
softening hard water by substituting sodium salts for those of calcium and
magnesium" (Thresh, 1912 p43). Groundwater pollution, particularly outbreaks
of typhoid fever resulting from sewage leaking directly into wells, received
considerable publicity. However the inherent safety of well waters was
recognised and experience showed that "water in slowly percolating through a
few feet of compact soil cannot carry with it the microbe causing typhoid
fever" (Thresh, 1908 p109). Parliament empowered many water boards to make
byelaws for protecting land around wells and in the Margate Act of 1902 the
water board was given the power to control drains, closets, cesspools etc.
over an area of 1500 yards (1372m) from any well or adit (Thresh and Beale,
1925).
During 1932-1934 there was a severe drought in southern and central England.
This led to the appointment of an Inland Water Survey Committee in 1935 and
the eventual formation of a Water Unit within the Geological Survey in 1937.
The state of knowledge in Britain at this time was summarised by the then
Director of the Survey, Bernard Smith (1881-1936), in his Cantor lectures to
the Society of Arts (Smith, 1935). The outbreak of war in 1939 diverted many
staff to water supply work and contributed to a build up of expertise within
the Survey which was to prove valuable in postwar Britain.
Legislation in place
The
Water Act of 1945 was the first piece of major legislation affecting water
supply in the UK for almost 100 years and was part of the social revolution
which followed the end of the Second World War (Downing, 1993). The period
between 1945 and 1963 has been described as an era of resource assessment by
Downing and Headworth (1990) and the 1945 Act provided the framework within
which these assessments were made. Information on the areal distribution of
rainfall was already well established in the UK and the work of
Penman (1948)
enabled evaporation to be estimated. Thus there was the opportunity to assess
groundwater resources with far greater accuracy than in the past.
Using data from many of the wells tested at this time, Jack Ineson
(1917-1970) began to apply methods developed in the USA to heterogeneous
British aquifers such as the Chalk. Other staff pioneered the use of down-hole
logging techniques adapted from the oil industry, analysed the river/
groundwater interface and synthesised the well records using the data to
compile hydrogeological maps. Outside the Survey, Boulton was working on the
delayed yield observed when unconfined aquifers are pumped under non-steady
state conditions (Boulton, 1954). The potential of artificial recharge began
to be taken seriously in the London Basin (Boniface, 1959) and natural
radioactivity in groundwaters became an issue (Turner, et al, 1961).
Unfortunately the 1945 Water Act did not recognise the close links between
groundwater and surface water, which led to difficulties, as aquifer
development and river management were the responsibility of different
organisations. The reduction in stream flows as a consequence of increasing
groundwater development, particularly in the Chalk, became a major factor
leading to the Water Resources Act of 1963. This created the Water Resources
Board (WRB), to plan water resources development on a national scale, and 29
catchment-based river authorities to control abstraction, prevent pollution,
drain land and protect fisheries. The period which ensued from 1963 to 1974
has been called an era of groundwater management by Downing and Headworth
(1990).
The WRB made three major regional studies of water resources and, in 1973,
proposed a national water strategy. Many of the studies carried out relied on
the cooperation of the water supply and river authorities some of which began
to recruit their own geological staff. In association with Ken Rushton, of
Birmingham University, WRB built some of the first electrical analogue and
then mathematical models used in Britain. Work carried out by Wantage Research
Laboratory, in cooperation with WRB, on the movement of thermonuclear tritium
through the unsaturated zone demonstrated that only 10 to 15% of infiltration
to the Chalk flows in fissures with the remainder moving through the matrix by
a form of piston flow (Smith, et al 1970) This important conclusion had major
implications for the understanding of the movement of solutes and contaminant
transport.
At the University of Bath, John Napier Andrews (1930-1994) studied the
release of radon from rock matrices and its entry into groundwater
(Andrews and Wood, 1972). He subsequently became a pioneer in the application
of noble gases to problems in hydrogeology.
Hydrogeology becomes mainstream
The years between 1963 and 1975 were probably the most significant in the
history of British hydrogeology. The number of individuals involved in
groundwater work, excluding those within consulting engineering companies,
rose from less than 20 to around 150. This increasing demand resulted in the
setting up of Masters Courses in Hydrogeology at University College London in
1965 and Birmingham University in 1971. The need for a discussion forum led to
the formation of the Hydrogeological Group of the Geological Society in 1974
and the Sub-Committee for Hydrogeology of the British National Committee for
Geology, serviced by the Royal Society, in 1975. During this period
hydrogeology changed from a fringe subject to a mainstream branch of geology
in the UK.
Since the mid-1970s the development of hydrogeology in Britain has been
intimately connected with changes in legislation. By the mid-1970s there was a
move to devolve power to the regions rather than concentrate it centrally and
the Water Act of 1973 was part of the Government's reorganisation of local
government to achieve this aim. The WRB was disbanded and ten regional water
authorities created whose areas of operation were defined by river catchment
boundaries so that the whole of the water cycle in a particular area,
including responsibility for groundwater, was under the control of a single
body. A further restructuring took place in 1989 when the ten water authorities
were privatised to become water supply and sewage utility companies with their
regulatory function transferred to a new body, the National Rivers Authority.
In 1996 the latter became part of the new Environment Agency. The greater
emphasis on quality from 1975 onwards prompted Downing and Headworth (1990)
to define this period as an era of groundwater quality.
From the mid-1970s onwards more attention began to be paid to
groundwater in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The water industry in
Scotland was not privatised in the same way as that in England and Wales
and is now the responsibility of a multi-functional authority - Scottish
Water. Since 1996 environmental regulation, including groundwater
protection has been the responsibility of the Scottish Environmental
Protection Agency. In Northern Ireland responsibilities for water supply
and regulation are vested in the Department of the Environment for Northern
Ireland.
One major change over the last 30 years has been the diversification of
the scope of the work now carried out by the hydrogeological community
in Britain. The traditional fields of water supply and water quality
continue to dominate but hydrogeologists have also made major
contributions to studies on the disposal of radioactive wastes,
geothermal energy, rising groundwater levels, mineralisation and climate
change.
Overall at the beginning of the 21st century the hydrogeological
community in Britain is in good heart. Legislation to control
groundwater abstraction and contamination, and the expertise necessary
to investigate quantity and quality, are in place to meet the challenges
which the future will undoubtedly bring.
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