Insight User Guide: Abstractions and Source Protection Zones
Groundwater abstractions
Licensed groundwater abstractions for sites extracting more than 20 cubic metres of water a day and includes active and historical records. The data may be for a single abstraction point, between two points (line data) or a larger area.
Groundwater abstraction licences with the status ‘Historical’ is assigned by Groundsure. A record will be classified as ‘Historical’ if the same record is not received in the most recent data update from the Environment Agency.
From 1 January 2018 most previously exempt water abstractions will need a licence.
If a site used to abstract water under an exemption, they must apply for a new licence (also known as a new authorisation). They must apply before 30 June 2020.
The Environment Agency will determine new authorisation applications from January 2020 to December 2022.
An operator will need to apply for a new licence (also known as a new authorisation) if they used to abstract water under an existing exemption for:
- Transferring water from one inland water to another in the course of, or as the result of, operations carried out by a navigation, harbour or conservancy authority
- Abstracting water into internal drainage districts, but not including land drainage activities
- Dewatering mines, quarries and engineering works, where the water is mostly groundwater rather than rainwater
- Warping (abstraction of water containing silt for deposit onto agricultural land for fertiliser)
- All forms of irrigation (other than spray irrigation, which is already licensable), and the use of land drainage systems in reverse, including transfers into managed wetland systems, to maintain field water levels
- Abstractions within currently geographically exempt areas, including some rivers close to the borders of Scotland
- The majority of abstractions covered by Crown and visiting forces exemptions.
Data source: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales
Data update schedule: Quarterly
Surface water abstractions
Licensed surface water abstractions for sites extracting more than 20 cubic metres of water a day and includes active and historical records. The data may be for a single abstraction point, a stretch of watercourse or a larger area.
From 1 January 2018 most previously exempt water abstractions will need a licence.
If a site used to abstract water under an exemption, they must apply for a new licence (also known as a new authorisation). They must apply before 30 June 2020.
The Environment Agency will determine new authorisation applications from January 2020 to December 2022.
An operator will need to apply for a new licence (also known as a new authorisation) if they used to abstract water under an existing exemption for:
- Transferring water from one inland water to another in the course of, or as the result of, operations carried out by a navigation, harbour or conservancy authority
- Abstracting water into internal drainage districts, but not including land drainage activities
- Dewatering mines, quarries and engineering works, where the water is mostly groundwater rather than rainwater
- Warping (abstraction of water containing silt for deposit onto agricultural land for fertiliser)
- All forms of irrigation (other than spray irrigation, which is already licensable), and the use of land drainage systems in reverse, including transfers into managed wetland systems, to maintain field water levels
- Abstractions within currently geographically exempt areas, including some rivers close to the borders of Scotland
- The majority of abstractions covered by Crown and visiting forces exemptions.
Data source: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales
Data update schedule: Quarterly
Potable abstractions
Licensed potable water abstractions for sites extracting more than 20 cubic metres of water a day and includes active and historical records. The data may be for a single abstraction point, a stretch of watercourse or a larger area. These records will usually be associated with a Source Protection Zone.
From 1 January 2018 most previously exempt water abstractions will need a licence.
If a site used to abstract water under an exemption, they must apply for a new licence (also known as a new authorisation). They must apply before 30 June 2020.
The Environment Agency will determine new authorisation applications from January 2020 to December 2022.
An operator will need to apply for a new licence (also known as a new authorisation) if they used to abstract water under an existing exemption for:
- Transferring water from one inland water to another in the course of, or as the result of, operations carried out by a navigation, harbour or conservancy authority
- Abstracting water into internal drainage districts, but not including land drainage activities
- Dewatering mines, quarries and engineering works, where the water is mostly groundwater rather than rainwater
- Warping (abstraction of water containing silt for deposit onto agricultural land for fertiliser)
- All forms of irrigation (other than spray irrigation, which is already licensable), and the use of land drainage systems in reverse, including transfers into managed wetland systems, to maintain field water levels
- Abstractions within currently geographically exempt areas, including some rivers close to the borders of Scotland
- The majority of abstractions covered by Crown and visiting forces exemptions
Abstraction data is presented in three formats: point, line and polygon and these are referenced under the “Data Type” field within the data table.
|
Data Type |
Description |
|
Point |
Used for any discrete single point – borehole/well or surface water abstraction point. Also can be used to identify the centre of a lake/pond from which abstraction is authorized. In some cases a single NGR may be used to identify the general location of a number of abstraction points. |
|
Line |
Used to define either:
|
|
Polygon |
Defines an area from or within which abstraction is authorised. It is used to represent licence ‘Point of Abstraction’ conditions, such as “Any point outlined in blue and shaded within the area”. Since 1999 the convention is to use NGR1 as the North West corner, NGR2 as the North East corner, NGR3 as the South East corner and NGR4 as the South West corner of the area specified. |
Data update schedule: Quarterly
Source Protection Zones
Source Protection Zones (SPZs) define the sensitivity of an area around a potable abstraction site to contamination.
The purpose of SPZs is to provide additional protection to safeguard drinking water quality through constraining the proximity of an activity that may impact upon a drinking water abstraction.
Zones around location sites are defined by groundwater travel time to an abstraction. This is determined through applying Environment Agency groundwater flow models run at the location of abstractions, inputting parameters such as flow direction, geology type, rainfall and hydrological boundaries.
The SPZ maps are produced at 1:50,000 scale.
|
SPZ type |
Description |
|
Zone 1 (inner protection zone) |
This zone is defined by a travel time of 50 days or less from any point within the zone at, or below, the water table. Additionally, the zone has a minimum of a 50m radius. It is based principally on biological decay criteria and is designed to protect against the transmission of toxic chemicals and water-borne disease. In geological settings where a confining layer is present, this is indicated as Zone 1c. |
|
Zone 2 (outer protection zone) |
This zone is defined by the 400 day travel time from a point below the water table. Additionally this zone has a minimum radius of 250 or 500m, depending on the size of the abstraction. The travel time is derived from consideration of the minimum time required to provide delay, dilution and attenuation of slowly degrading pollutants. In geological settings where a confining layer is present, this is indicated as Zone 2c. |
|
Zone 3 (total catchment) |
This zone is defined as the total area needed to support the abstraction or discharge from the protected groundwater source. In geological settings where a confining layer is present, this is indicated as Zone 3c. |
|
Zone 4 (zone of special interest) |
Zone of special interest was previously defined for some groundwater sources. These zones highlighted areas (mainly on non-aquifers) where known local conditions meant that potentially polluting activities could impact on a groundwater source even though the area is outside the normal catchment of that source. In future this zone will be incorporated into one of the other zones (1, 2 or 3) whichever is appropriate in the particular case. |
Data source: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales
Data update schedule: Quarterly
Source Protection Zones (confined aquifer)
Source Protection Zones in the confined aquifer define the sensitivity around a deep groundwater abstraction to contamination. A confined aquifer would normally be protected from contamination by overlying geology and is only considered a sensitive resource if deep excavation/drilling is taking place.
Please refer to the table presented above for full descriptions of SPZ type.
Data source: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales
Data update schedule: Quarterly