Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimates, if any, they have made of the changes to the water table in Cumbria, Yorkshire and Lancashire as a result of rainfall over the last six weeks.

The Environment Agency’s water situation report for the north west of England (which is published on the Gov.UK website) reports the situation for observation boreholes in the main bedrock aquifer in Cumbria and Lancashire, the Sherwood Sandstone. The Sherwood Sandstone is moderately unresponsive to rainfall events and this is partly because of the high storage characteristics of the sandstone and also because much of it is covered by low permeability glacial clays.

Hydrographs for Skirwith (Cumbria) and Yew Tree Farm (West Lancashire) are thought to be representative of this aquifer, although this monitoring is undertaken for water resources purposes not groundwater flooding purposes.

• The Skirwith hydrograph shows that the groundwater level has risen quite dramatically since mid-November in response to recent rainfall..
• The hydrograph for Yew Tree Farm shows a similar but less dramatic rise, with levels close to record highs (the site has been monitored since 1971 but with groundwater levels rising steadily since the late 1990s due to reduction in nearby abstraction).
• The sudden rise in levels was from quite a low point due to a relatively dry year and especially early autumn. Both of the examples show a steady reduction in levels up to the rainfall starting in November.

The Environment Agency routinely monitors groundwater throughout Yorkshire. Water levels in November 2015 were:

• on the low side of average in the Chalk Principal Aquifer and the Corallian Limestone Principal Aquifer
• just above average in the Magnesian Limestone Principal Aquifer
• well above average in the Sherwood Sandstone Principal Aquifer

Levels in all the aquifers in Yorkshire have responded to the rainfall in late December 2015 and early January 2016:

• Levels in the Chalk have responded strongly to the recent rainfall.
• Groundwater levels in the Corallian Limestone near Malton are now at record highs and the result is ongoing groundwater flooding in Malton. North Yorkshire County Council are coordinating a multi-agency response including pumping to minimise the impact on local communities.
• Levels in the Magnesian Limestone and the Sherwood Sandstone have also responded to the rainfall and are now at maximum levels for the time of year.

The Environment Agency undertakes monitoring and assessment of different aquifers locally, based upon the potential risk of groundwater flooding. A system of groundwater flood alerts and warnings is provided through our incident response procedures for those communities most vulnerable to potential groundwater flooding.

Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs)(Local Councils) have responsibility for local flood risk including groundwater under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. This Act gives LLFAs duties to prepare local flood risk management strategies and to co-operate with other risk management authorities, and powers to carry out local flood risk management.