We’ve got licenses to pump out of rivers so understand irrigation but we are thinking of putting a bore hole in. Can anybody offer any pointers please with regards to legalities? Do you just do it? Is it metered seeing that it would be our water from under owner land? Drilling costs? Etc.
Bore hole pointers
- Thread starter mountfarm
- Start date
Fish
Member
- Location
- North yorkshire
You will still need an abstraction license for a bore hole.
Might be a stupid question but how would the EA know what you are extracting? It’s a below ground aquifer so not sure how they’d have any involvement? It’s owned land.
Fish
Member
- Location
- North yorkshire
Have you herd of satellites, if the EA found you had been abstracting with out a licence you would well and truly fecked, fine, you could loose your sfp.
The water under your land in the deep aquifers does not belong to the land owner.
The water under your land in the deep aquifers does not belong to the land owner.
We wouldn’t suddenly build a shed over the bore hole attracting attention. Where we’d drill is well out of sight of anything.
No never had an EA audit.
Ruston3w
Member
- Location
- south suffolk
It's just the same as any other abstraction licence, you'll need to justify it's use based on historic water use and future cropping, all boreholes have to be registered when drilled and many new ones have on-going water quality testing requirements. No idea where you are but here you would be hard-pressed to get permission for any significant licence to use as total loss i.e.spray irrigation unless you have transferred a licence from elsewhere (say old industrial use) , even then you likely would only be awarded a fraction of the old licence. The responsibility for registering a new borehole belongs with driller I believe......no getting round that.
Richard.
Richard.
If the daily rate is under 20 cubic metres the paperwork is much easier. You still need permission from the EA regardless of quantity.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/water-management-apply-for-a-water-abstraction-or-impoundment-licence
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/water-management-apply-for-a-water-abstraction-or-impoundment-licence
essex man
Member
- Location
- colchester
Thought under 20 cubes was paperwork free...was considering digging one to help top up reservoirs. Was assuming amount was slightly "flexible"
No. Not any more. See this: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/water-management-apply-for-a-water-abstraction-or-impoundment-licence
Netherfield
Member
- Location
- West Yorkshire
If anyone else close by is abstracting water they could have prior rights to it, the bore at the main farm was sunk in the 60s after seeing the Yorkshire Show system, some years later a soft drinks firm wanted a borehole for their business, they had to drill the hole and pump x amounts out per day, and then check that our levels were not dropping, had they dropped they would have had to cease pumping, it would have been quite expensive given the amount of water and size of pump they required. Took 6 months because it had to be checked through the months of least rainfall, fortunately for them it was all OK.
I've read through what I linked and you're right. You still need to survey but below 20 cube/day is outside the scope of a licence. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/water-abstraction-licensing-strategies-cams-process
- Location
- Northumberland
Yep, under 20cu m day no need for any permissions.
Different requirements over 20 cu m day as noted above
Regarding cost,- depends on depth , if the hole needs lining, type of pump, need for any treatment / filtraction etc etc.
Ours 3 years ago 70m deep. pump sitting at 30 m treatment to take out Iron & Manganese, UV filter sized for 19 cu m day
cost £15k
I assume for irrigation you will not need filters which I guess would knock about 30% off the cost
Different requirements over 20 cu m day as noted above
Regarding cost,- depends on depth , if the hole needs lining, type of pump, need for any treatment / filtraction etc etc.
Ours 3 years ago 70m deep. pump sitting at 30 m treatment to take out Iron & Manganese, UV filter sized for 19 cu m day
cost £15k
I assume for irrigation you will not need filters which I guess would knock about 30% off the cost
Exfarmer
Member
- Location
- Bury St Edmunds
It always used to be the case that the 20 cumec exemption specifically excluded spray irrigation, so take care