Quality and protection

A white woman in a red and black coat is standing next to a spring writing in a notebook. A coiled tube leads from the stream to some water sampling equipment.

The quality of groundwater determines its value as a resource and how it affects surface-water ecosystems. BGS researches all aspects of groundwater quality, from assessing natural chemical variations and their controls and effects to the effects of pollution from agriculture, industry and urban sources. The scope of our pollution research ranges from long-established and legacy contaminants (for example, nitrates; trace metals; microorganisms) to new and emerging contaminants (like pharmaceutical compounds).

A white man wearing dark green clothes crouches next to a fence-off area in a field. There are tubes, bags, buckets and scientific equipment around him. He is looking at a hand-held instrument.
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Collecting a water chemistry sample from a piezometer on Wybunbury Moss in Cheshire, England. BGS © UKRI.

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We collaborate with government departments, academia, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and industry to contribute to process understanding in groundwater quality and support efforts to protect and regulate groundwater resources, both in the UK and overseas.

Key resources

Contact

Please contact BGS Enquiries for further information.

Our research

a small waterfall cascades out of a grill set in a wall. There is a funnel-shaped net placed in the middle of the stream flow.

Groundwater and health

Researching groundwater quality in relation to human health.

A yellow wheel holds a length of black tubing. A tap is balanced on a bucket and water drains from the tap onto the ground.

Baseline chemistry of groundwater in UK aquifers

Characterising the baseline groundwater chemistry for aquifers in Great Britain.

A borehole drilling machine in a muddy field

Shale gas and groundwater

Understanding potential effects on groundwater from shale gas exploitation.