Title: Fylde aquifer/Wyre catchment water resources study : final report. August 1997
Author: Environment Agency North West Region
Document Type: Monograph
Abstract:
The Fylde Aquifer/Wyre Catchment Study Area stretches from the headwaters of the River Wyre in the east to its estuary in the west, and from the River Ribble in the south to Morecambe Bay in the north. The River Wyre and its tributaries originate on the complex and highly faulted and folded Carboniferous strata of the Bowland Forest. They then flow predominantly w estwards across the Permo-Triassic Sherwood Sandstone and extensive Superficial deposits of the Fylde Plain to meet just east of St Michaels on Wyre. The Sherwood Sandstone in this area constitutes the Fylde aquifer. It is an important source of water for North West Water (NWW), forming a component of their Lancashire Conjunctive Use Scheme (LCUS). In addition the Fylde aquifer is used by a number of industrial and private abstractors, most notably ICI Ltd in the north and British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) and Whitbreads in the south, near Preston. Concerns had been expressed over a number of years about the long-term reliability of water supply from the Fylde aquifer, and depleted summer flows in the Wyre a n d its tributaries. When LCUS was licensed, environmental protection was not a primary issue. However the Environment Agency now has a duty to balance the needs of water supply and the environment. Recent droughts have brought environmental issues of the Fylde aquifer system into focus, particularly because the NWW LCUS groundwater sources have not been used at their full licensed rates.
Publisher: Environment Agency
Publication Date: 1997
Publication Place: Warrington
Subject Keywords: Hydrology; Hydrogeology; Aquifers; Models; Modelling; Water abstraction; Water abstraction licenses
Geographic Keywords: Wyre catchment; Lancashire; The Fylde
Extent: n.p. [366]
Permalink: http://www.environmentdata.org/archive/ealit:920
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