Baseline Report Series: 21. The Chalk and Crag of north Norfolk and the Waveney Catchment Groundwater Systems and Water Quality Commissioned Report CR/06/043N Science Group: Air, Land & Water Technical Report NC/99/74/21 The Natural Quality of Groundwater in England and Wales A joint programme of research by the British Geological Survey and the Environment Agency BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Commissioned Report CR/06/043N ENVIRONMENT AGENCY Science Group: Air, Land & Water Technical Report NC/99/74/21 This report is the result of a study jointly funded by the British Geological Baseline Report Series: Survey’s National Groundwater Survey and the Environment Agency’s Science 21. The Chalk and Crag of north Group. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or Norfolk and the Waveney Catchment by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright proprietors. All rights are reserved by the copyright E L Ander, P Shand and S Wood proprietors. Disclaimer Contributors The officers, servants or agents of both the British Geological Survey and the Environment Agency accept no liability D Lapworth, S Hannay and S Hickling whatsoever for loss or damage arising from the interpretation or use of the information, or reliance on the views contained herein. Environment Agency Dissemination status Internal: Release to Regions External: Public Domain Project No. SC990024 ©Environment Agency, 2006 Statement of use This document forms one of a series of reports describing the baseline chemistry of selected reference aquifers in England and Wales. Cover illustration Cromer Forest Bed Formation, Crag Group, Kessingland beach, Suffolk. Key words Environment Agency Project Manager: Baseline, Crag, Chalk, Norfolk, Waveney, water quality, hydrogeochemistry, UK aquifer. Dr Sean Burke Science Group: Air, Land & Water Bibliographic Reference Ander, EL, Shand, P and Wood S, 2006. British Geological Survey Project Manager: Baseline Report Series: 21. The Chalk and Crag of north Norfolk and the Dr Paul Shand Waveney Catchment. Groundwater Systems & Water Quality Programme British Geological Survey Commissioned Report No. CR/06/043N ©Environment Agency 2006 Environment Agency Science Group, Solihull 2006 ©NERC 2006 British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham 2006 BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ENVIRONMENT AGENCY The full range of Survey publications is available from BGS The Environment Agency is the leading public body protecting and Sales Desk at the Survey headquarters, Keyworth, Nottingham. improving the environment in England and Wales. 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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 2. PERSPECTIVE 2 2.1 North Norfolk 2 2.2 The Waveney catchment 5 3. BACKGROUND TO UNDERSTANDING BASELINE QUALITY 7 3.1 Geology 7 3.2 Hydrogeology 12 3.3 Aquifer mineralogy 16 3.4 Rainfall chemistry 18 3.5 Landuse 19 4. DATA AND INTERPRETATION 21 4.1 Project sampling programme 21 4.2 Historical data 22 4.3 Processes affecting the composition of pumped groundwater 22 4.4 Data handling 24 5. HYDROCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS 26 5.1 Introduction 26 5.2 The Chalk Aquifer 26 5.3 The Crag aquifer 33 6. GEOCHEMICAL CONTROLS AND REGIONAL CHARACTERISTICS 40 6.1 Introduction 40 6.2 The Chalk aquifer 40 6.3 The Crag aquifer 54 6.4 Comparison of hydrochemical data from the Waveney piezometer samples 66 7. BASELINE CHEMISTRY OF THE AQUIFERS 69 7.1 Chalk 69 7.2 Crag 70 8. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 71 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 72 REFERENCES 73 i List of Figures Figure 2.1 Location of the north Norfolk and Waveney study areas 3 Figure 2.2 Schematic section through Redgrave and Lopham Fen 5 Figure 3.1 Solid geology of the study areas 8 Figure 3.2 Summary of the East Anglian Crag stratigraphy (Jones et al., 2000). 10 Figure 3.3 Superficial geology of the North Norfolk and Waveney study areas. 11 Figure 3.4 Trace-element concentrations in the Chalk of the Trunch borehole (Bath and Edmunds, 1984) 17 Figure 3.5 Landuse in the study areas 20 Figure 4.1 Pore-water profile of the Trunch borehole (Bath & Edmunds, 1981). The samples marked ‘pumped’ are plotted at an arbitrary depth for comparative purposes only. 24 Figure 5.1 Piper diagram for the North Norfolk and Waveney Chalk groundwaters 28 Figure 5.2 Box-plot of major elements in the Chalk groundwaters 29 Figure 5.3 Cumulative probability plot of major elements in the Chalk groundwaters 29 Figure 5.4 Box-plot of minor and trace elements in the Chalk groundwaters 32 Figure 5.5 Cumulative probability plot of minor and trace elements in the Chalk groundwaters 32 Figure 5.6 Piper diagram for the (a) North Norfolk and (b) Waveney Crag groundwaters 35 Figure 5.7 Boxplot of major elements in the Crag groundwaters 35 Figure 5.8 Cumulative probability plot of major elements in the Crag groundwater 36 Figure 5.9 Boxplot of minor and trace elements in the Crag groundwaters 38 Figure 5.10 Cumulative probability plot of minor and trace elements in the Crag groundwaters 39 Figure 6.1 Comparison of analytes with depth for the chalk aquifer 42 Figure 6.2 Temporal trends in selected AWS bores for Fe and NO3. 43 Figure 6.3 Spatial distribution of analyte concentrations in the Chalk aquifer (a) SEC (b) Ca (c) Mg (d) HCO3 45 Figure 6.4 Spatial distribution of ion concentrations in the Chalk aquifer (a) Si (b) F (c) Sr (d) SO4 46 Figure 6.5 Spatial distribution of selected redox indicators over the Chalk outcrop (a) DO (b) NO3 (c) Fe (d) As 49 Figure 6.6 Redox indicator species 50 Figure 6.7 Chloride ratios compared to seawater dilution 52 Figure 6.8 Stable isotope composition of the Waveney chalk groundwaters 53 Figure 6.9 Comparison of Sr/Ca with δ13C in the Waveney Chalk aquifer 54 Figure 6.10 Comparison of selected determinands with borehole depth for the Waveney Crag