ISO 14001 Compliance: Groundwater Protection

As part of our ISO 14001 compliance series, this article shows how we can help you with groundwater protection.

Groundwater is a valuable resource that must be protected from pollution. Once groundwater becomes contaminated, it is complicated and expensive to clean up over many years. 

Groundwater pollution can occur through spillages and improper disposal of oils, solvents, chemicals or waste materials. Contamination can occur from discharges onto open ground and other porous surfaces or from drainage systems that soak into the ground (soakaways).  

The Environment Agency defines any discharge of pollutants which enters groundwater directly or may enter the soil and reach groundwater, as a groundwater activity. To carry out groundwater activity, you need an environmental permit from the Environment Agency. You must prevent pollution of groundwater by following the conditions of your permit.  

Fines for groundwater pollution are large. For example, Kier Construction and one of their sub-contractors were fined £180,000 in January 2018 for polluting groundwater with over 11,000 litres of diesel oil at one of their construction sites.

Groundwater Protection Services

We can consult with you to design your drainage systems to be ISO 14001 compliant. This is important to ensure waste solvents, chemicals or oil do not enter groundwater. 

We provide a range of services to help you protect groundwater – from spill mapping and spill containment systems to tanker services and CCTV drain investigation. 

We can help

County Drains are specialists in pollution and environmental control, and we are ISO 14001 certified. We offer expert advice and services to companies looking to set up or implement their environmental management policies.

If you are responsible for your company’s environmental management plan, give us a call on 01530 510571 to find out how we can help you meet your obligations the smart way.
 

17 Dec 2018

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