Dr Pauline Smedley

Pauline Smedley’s Biography

• 2009 – present: Hydrogeochemist, BGS Keyworth
• 2014 – 2019: Team Leader: Groundwater Protection
• – 2009: Hydrogeochemist, BGS Wallingford

Research interests

• Potential environmental impacts of shale-gas development in the UK
• Processes controlling mobilisation and transport of trace elements of health concern in groundwaters (arsenic, fluoride, molybdenum, uranium, nickel)
• The baseline chemistry of groundwaters
• Water quality and impacts in developing countries
• Inorganic chemistry of bottled water
• Corrosion and encrustation in groundwater installations and aquifers

Current projects and collaborations

• Groundwater chemistry monitoring in relation to shale-gas development (Lancashire and Yorkshire)
• Baseline chemistry of groundwater in aquifers in England & Wales; assessments in relation to chemical change
• Fluoride in African groundwater
• Hydrogeochemistry of trace elements in British groundwater (arsenic, uranium, molybdenum, nickel; chemistry of bottled mineral water)
• Baseline hydrogeochemistry of groundwater in Scotland
• Streamwater investigations in the Clyde catchment, Scotland, under the G-BASE project

Published outputs

Scopus profile

Publication downloads

• WaterAid website (leaflets)
• Baseline reports
• WaterAid leaflets by country
• WaterAid leaflets by element

Key papers

• Smedley, P L, Shand, P, and Butcher, A S. 2018. Age and quality stratification of groundwater in the Triassic Sherwood Sandstone aquifer of South Yorkshire and the East Midlands, UK. Applied Geochemistry, 97, 109–122.
• Smedley, P L, and Kinniburgh, D G. 2017. Molybdenum in natural waters: a review of occurrence, distributions and controls. Applied Geochemistry, 84, 387–432.
• Smedley, P L, Cooper, D M, Ander, E L, Milne, C J, and Lapworth, D J. 2014. Occurrence of molybdenum in British surface water and groundwater: distributions, controls and implications for water supply. Applied Geochemistry, 40, 144–154.
• Edmunds, W M, and Smedley, P.L. 2013. Chapter 12: Fluoride in natural waters. In: Essentials of Medical Geology, Second Edition. Eds: Selinus, O, Alloway, B, Centeno, J A, Finkelman, R B, Fuge, R, Lindh, U, and Smedley, P L. Springer, 311–336.
• Smedley, P L. 2010. A survey of the inorganic chemistry of bottled mineral waters from the British Isles. Applied Geochemistry, 25, 1872–1888.
• Reddy, D V, Nagabhushanam, P, Sukhija, B S, Reddy, A G S, Smedley, P L. 2010. Fluoride dynamics in the granitic aquifer of the Wailapally watershed, Nalgonda District, India. Chemical Geology, 269, 278–289.
• Smedley, P L, Knudsen, J, and Maiga, D. 2007. Arsenic in groundwater from mineralised Proterozoic basement rocks of Burkina Faso. Applied Geochemistry, 22, 1074ndash;1092.
• Smedley, P L, Kinniburgh, D G, Macdonald, D M J, Nicolli, H B, Barros, A J, Tullio, J O, Pearce, J M, and Alonso, M S. 2005. Arsenic associations in sediments from the loess aquifer of La Pampa, Argentina. Applied Geochemistry, 20, 989–1016.
• Smedley, P L, Zhang, M, Zhang, G, and Luo, Z. 2003. Mobilisation of arsenic and other trace elements in fluviolacustrine aquifers of the Huhhot Basin, Inner Mongolia. Applied Geochemistry, 18, 1453–1477.
• Smedley, P L, Nicolli, H B, Macdonald, D M J, Barros, A J, and Tullio, J O. 2002. Hydrogeochemistry of arsenic and other inorganic constituents in groundwaters from La Pampa, Argentina. Applied Geochemistry, 17, 259–284.
• Smedley, P L, and Kinniburgh, D G. 2002. A review of the source, behaviour and distribution of arsenic in natural waters. Applied Geochemistry, 17, 517–568.
• BGS and DPHE. 2001. Arsenic Contamination of Groundwater in Bangladesh. Eds: Kinniburgh, D G, and Smedley, P L. British Geological Survey Technical Report, WC/00/19. Four Volumes. British Geological Survey.

• Hydrogeochemistry
• Groundwater sampling/monitoring design

• PhD Geochemistry: University of Edinburgh
• BSc Environmental Sciences (Geological Science Major): University of East Anglia

Professional association

• Member IAH
• Co-chair: Groundwater Quality Commission, IAH
• Member NERC Peer-review college
• 2016 – present: Guest lecturer: Centre of Environment, University of Oxford