Understanding groundwater protection

What is the Environment Agency’s groundwater protection role in spatial planning?

The Environment Agency will target our efforts on parts of the regulatory cycle where we can have the greatest impact and prevent problems at source. By responding to local planning authority planning consultations, we help ensure that the proposed development is appropriately placed with regard to environmental sensitivities and impacts.

The Environment Agency is a statutory consultee for certain developments detailed in Development Management Procedure Order (DMPO) Schedule 4¹ and The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations².

We also request Local Planning Authorities and developers to consult us if the development includes ‘land affected by contamination from a previous use such as disused railways, or your proposal could cause contamination’. See Planning and transport authorities: get environmental advice on planning - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)³ and Developers: get environmental advice on your planning proposals - GOV.UK (⁴www.gov.uk)⁵ for further information.

Useful links

Please see the Environment Agency’s Approach to Groundwater Protection⁶ and Position Statements. These include details of where the Environment Agency will normally object to certain types of development in sensitive locations. 

• Groundwater protection guidance⁷
• Groundwater protection position statements⁸
• Check if you need an Environmental Permit⁹
• Find a Source Protection Zones (SPZ)¹⁰
• Groundwater vulnerability¹¹

The Contaminated Land: Applications in Real Environments (CL:AIRE) Water and Land Library (WALL)¹² is a freely available, extensive list of links to past and present water and land references published by the Environment Agency, AGS, BRE, CIRIA and other useful industry publishers. It mirrors the different sections of the Evironment Agency Land Contamination Risk Management¹³ web pages.

1. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/595/schedule/4/made
2. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/571/contents
3. https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fguidance%2Flocal-planning-authorities-get-environmental-advice&data=05%7C01%7Ctheresa.cory%40environment-agency.gov.uk%7C30b65c6049564085d20908dab8da0cad%7C770a245002274c6290c74e38537f1102%7C0%7C0%7C638025544184717496%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=nY965df5%2BiLJP6e%2BGjnGqEEE5v0lUS0IunvEYKNi%2Ba4%3D&reserved=0
4. https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fguidance%2Fdevelopers-get-environmental-advice-on-your-planning-proposals&data=05%7C01%7Ctheresa.cory%40environment-agency.gov.uk%7C30b65c6049564085d20908dab8da0cad%7C770a245002274c6290c74e38537f1102%7C0%7C0%7C638025544184717496%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=P4UTtwInbVOwHQuL6R6saLCrbt4v6kya08TZec%2BqLDY%3D&reserved=0
5. http://www.gov.uk)/
6. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/groundwater-protection-position-statements
7. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/groundwater-protection
8. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/groundwater-protection-position-statements
9. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-need-an-environmental-permit
10. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/groundwater-source-protection-zones-spzs
11. https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/9e82f76e-e7fd-41ef-b083-ebeed49f2c52/groundwater-vulnerability-data-for-england
12. https://www.claire.co.uk/information-centre/water-and-land-library-wall
13. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/land-contamination-risk-management-lcrm