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New information from HS2/Align indicates a much greater risk of aquifer contamination than previously admitted.
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In March, Thames Water is beginning work to fix groundwater infiltration hotspots in Chesham's sewers.
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A Dry May for the Chess
Jun 18, 2011
The Chilterns-East-Colne area, which includes the Chess catchment, had little rainfall during March, April or May. May had a number of heavy rainfall events which upped the recorded rainfall compared to April, but was still only 47% of May's Long Term Average (LTA).
The generally dry weather and warm temperatures increased the Soil Moisture Deficit (SMD) to 89 mm in this area compared to the LTA of 56 mm. However, we faired better than our neighbours; the Chilterns-East-Colne was the only part of the North East Thames Area to receive any effective rainfall (rainfall that contributes to groundwater levels) getting 2 mm, compared to the LTA of 8 mm. However, the groundwater levels recorded at Ashley Green monitoring station were below normal for the time of year. As recharge normally ends in May, groundwater levels are now not expected to rise significantly until winter.
As a result, the flow of the Chess continued to decline in May and its source migrated further downstream.
For the summer period (which starts on 1st April in the water year) only 32% of LTA rainfall was received, which equated to 8% of LTA effective rainfall. These sorts of figures could indicate that the Chess may dry up in Chesham later in the year.
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