Regulatory Practice and Transport Modelling for Nitrate Pollution in Groundwater
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Regulatory practice and transport modelling for nitrate pollution in groundwater Groundwater Science Programme Open Report OR/16/033 BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GROUNDWATER SCIENCE PROGRAMME OPEN REPORT OR/16/033 Regulatory practice and transport modelling for nitrate pollution in groundwater M E Stuart, R S Ward, M Ascott, A J Hart1 The National Grid and other Ordnance Survey data © Crown Copyright and database rights 2012. Ordnance Survey Licence 1 Environment Agency No. 100021290. Keywords Nitrate Vulnerable Zones; groundwater; unsaturated zone. Front cover Modelled nitrate arrival time at the water table Bibliographical reference STUART, M E, WARD, R S, ASCOTT, M, HART A J. 2016. Regulatory practice and transport modelling for nitrate pollution in groundwater. British Geological Survey Open Report, OR/16/033. 74pp. Copyright in materials derived from the British Geological Survey’s work is owned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and/or the authority that commissioned the work. You may not copy or adapt this publication without first obtaining permission. Contact the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Section, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, e-mail [email protected]. You may quote extracts of a reasonable length without prior permission, provided a full acknowledgement is given of the source of the extract. Maps and diagrams in this book use topography based on Ordnance Survey mapping. © NERC 2016. 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NVZs are delineated by the Environment Agency in compliance with the European Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC). Acknowledgements The report authors are grateful to the staff of the Environment Agency who contributed data, advice and comments during the production of this report. These include Alwyn Hart, Tim Besien, Sarah Scott, Polly Wallace and Lucy Roberts. The project was managed for the Environment Agency by Andrew Onobrakpeya i OR/16/033 Contents Foreword ......................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... i Contents .......................................................................................................................................... ii Summary ........................................................................................................................................ v 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Project objectives ............................................................................................................ 2 2 The UK groundwater nitrate legacy ..................................................................................... 3 2.1 Background ..................................................................................................................... 3 2.2 BGS nitrate legacy model (NTB) ................................................................................... 6 3 NVZ designations under the Nitrates Directive ................................................................ 17 3.1 1996 .............................................................................................................................. 17 3.2 2002 Review ................................................................................................................. 20 3.3 2008 Review ................................................................................................................. 24 4 Assessment of the 2012 designation process for groundwater ......................................... 29 4.1 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 29 4.2 Designated NVZ areas .................................................................................................. 36 4.3 Appeals process ............................................................................................................ 36 5 The Water Framework Directive ....................................................................................... 37 5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 37 5.2 Environmental objectives ............................................................................................. 37 5.3 2009 WFD nitrate results .............................................................................................. 38 6 Other nitrate legacy modelling ........................................................................................... 40 6.1 Nitrate concentrations in the Thames Basin ................................................................. 40 6.2 Other approaches to predicting nitrate concentrations in groundwater ........................ 43 7 Application of the BGS unsaturated zone model to inform NVZ designation ............... 47 7.1 Approach ...................................................................................................................... 47 7.2 Proposed Phase 2 project activities .............................................................................. 48 References .................................................................................................................................... 49 Appendix 1 Summary of the decisions made by the NVZ Appeals Panel (as at 7th April 2010) 51 ii OR/16/033 FIGURES Figure 2.1 Nitrate profiles from shallow pits on the Yorkshire Chalk (from Foster and Crease, 1974) ........................................................................................................... 3 Figure 2.2 Correlating nitrate peaks and cropping records (after Young et al., 1976a) ........... 4 Figure 2.3 a) Typical early nitrate profiles and subsequent sequential reprofiling (from Foster et al., 1986) and b) Sequential porewater profiles for tritium (from Geake and Foster, 1989) ............................................................................................................ 4 Figure 2.4 Porewater profiles in the important aquifers in England and Wales collected by BGS, NERC Lowland catchments research project (LOCAR), WRc, Southern Water Authority (SWA) and the University of Birmingham (Stuart, 2005) ........... 5 Figure 2.5 Flow chart of the spatial-temporal GIS model and main data sources .................... 7 Figure 2.6 Simplified 1:625,000 scale hydrogeological map showing locations of major aquifers with unsaturated zone travel times attributed from measured values in Table 2.1 .................................................................................................................. 8 Figure 2.7 Interpolation of groundwater levels from topography and surface water information. In this cross section the base level has been interpolated between