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Managing and protecting groundwater

Find out why groundwater is important and what we are doing to manage and protect it.

Groundwater is important. It supplies about one third of mains drinking water in England and around three per cent in Wales. It also supports numerous private supplies. But pollution and demands for water puts the resource under pressure. 

Groundwater has many benefits for:

  • society - by providing water that needs little treatment before it can be drunk
  • the economy - groundwater reserves are worth an estimated £8 billion
  • the environment - all rivers are partly fed by groundwater. Some rivers and wetlands are completely dependant on it.

GP3 (Groundwater Protection Policy and Practice)

Our GP3  documents describe how we manage and protect groundwater now and for the future. There are two key risks to groundwater. These are:

  • pollution - groundwater is vulnerable to contamination and is difficult to clean. Nitrate, pesticides, solvents and other chemicals can get into groundwater from surface water and soils.
  • demand - over-use of groundwater depletes the public water supply, so we might not be able to rely on it in the future. Many rivers and wildlife also depend heavily on groundwater and may be harmed, or lost, if groundwater levels become too low.  Thirty-five per cent of groundwater bodies are classified as at ‘poor quantitative status’ under the EU Water Framework Directive because of abstraction pressures.

These documents put our understanding, the tools used to assess risks, and our policies for activities that may impact on groundwater resources and quality in a single place. We also produced a ‘State of Groundwater Report’ in 2006 to provide a baseline upon which we can assess how our actions are improving the groundwater environment.

GP3 is intended to be used by anyone interested in groundwater and particularly those proposing an activity which may cause groundwater impacts. We want these documents to help you understand the importance of groundwater and encourage you to act responsibly and improve your practices to prevent or mitigate impacts on groundwater. We also use these documents internally to help us make decisions. They help you understand what you may need to do to help to protect our hidden resource, our groundwater. 

A project has been undertaken to examine and provide a tool to assess cumulative impacts on groundwater from phosphorus and nitrogen inputs. It is intended that the report and spreadsheet tool will be integrated within GP3 but in the meantime you can download these documents:

Consultation on groundwater guidance

We would like your comments on our revision to the GP3 Part 4 document on how to manage and protect groundwater.

We have revised GP3 Part 4, which contains position statements and information on legislation. This includes recent changes to legislation such as those in the Groundwater Directive 2006, which are implemented through Environmental Permitting Regulations and the Floods and Water Management Act.

We have also produced six new documents which make up a new Part 5 of GP3. These documents provide a detailed interpretation of the legislation to provide clarity to our customers and help us to make clear and consistent decisions when protecting groundwater.
 
You can comment on the groundwater consultation until 23 December 2011.