Guidance

Protect groundwater and prevent groundwater pollution

Understand when your activities affect groundwater, what permissions you may need and how to prevent pollution.

From:
Environment Agency
Published
14 March 2017
Last updated
1 August 2024 — See all updates

Documents

Protect groundwater and prevent groundwater pollution

HTML

Confined and unconfined aquifers

PDF, 86.5 KB, 1 page

Groundwater: vulnerability

PDF, 82.1 KB, 1 page

Details

Use this guide to understand:

  • what groundwater is and how your activity might affect it
  • permissions you need to discharge to or abstract from groundwater
  • how vulnerable your location is to groundwater pollution
  • the designated groundwater protection zones

This guidance is for planners, applicants for environmental permits and abstraction licences, and landowners concerned with the quality and quantity of groundwater.

Updates to this page

Published 14 March 2017
Last updated 1 August 2024 + show all updates

  1. Updated the guidance 'Protect groundwater and prevent groundwater pollution' to clarify the definition of groundwater - Water stored in geological strata (for example, in rocks) below the water table is called groundwater.

  2. First published.

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