Groundwater Protection Scheme Reports

The Scheme Reports Groundwater Protection map provides links to county based reports. A groundwater protection scheme has land surface zone map(s) and groundwater protection responses for potentially polluting activities e.g., landfill, land spreading and septic tanks. The role of the GSI is to create the land surface zoning map, whereas decisions on groundwater protection responses are the responsibility of the statutory authorities. The GSI use groundwater vulnerability, aquifer and source protection areas maps to produce Groundwater Protection Zones. Each zone is classified with a code (e.g., Rf/H), which allows the risk to groundwater to be assessed, independent of any hazard or contaminant type. It is a guide to assess how suitable an area is for an activity e.g., landfill. A site investigation should then be carried out. Once the groundwater protection zone is classified for an area, the hazards posed by human activities can be evaluated to assess the appropriate risk management measures, or Groundwater Protection Responses, for these activities. The Groundwater Protection Responses, which are shown by a code (e.g., R2¹), outline how likely the activity will be accepted in that area. Full details are available which describe all necessary actions which need to be taken. Responses are available for landfills, landspreading of organic wastes, on-site wastewater treatment systems (e.g., septic tanks), out wintering pads and earth-lined slurry stores. This map is to the scale 1:50,000. This means it should be viewed at that scale. When printed at that scale 1cm on the map relates to a distance of 500m. It is a vector dataset. Vector data portray the world using points, lines, and polygons (areas). The county data are shown as polygons. Each polygon holds information on the province, county , a link to a report page on our website and a field showing if a Groundwater Protection Scheme Report has been published, or any other report such as a water quality or source protection report. The map displays counties areas in green if a Groundwater Protection Scheme Report has been published, counties in orange if any other report has been published for that area (water quality, source protection) and red if no reports have been published.