Company operations - groundwater abstraction for agriculture in areas of shallow underlying saline conditions
| Initial
operations have been directed toward groundwater abstraction
investigation, development and control for
agricultural irrigation applications in UK. The company has developed a systematic process for measuring ground hydrological parameters by geophysical and direct measurements to select favourable abstraction sites, abstraction design with constrained pump testing, application and procurement of permits and licences from the UK Environment Agency and implementation of technical control programmes to avoid contamination through shallow saline 'pull-up'. Specifically, we have
developed and refined a technique in the Lincolnshire Fenlands where shallow saline groundwater beneath a thin
freshwater cover otherwise precludes effective abstraction of fresh water from boreholes. Increased levels of saline contamination greatly reduce the yields of certain types of crop that have low chloride tolerance.
Adopting the technique with systematically determined controls applied to abstraction, a
supply of fresh groundwater is achieved that avoids detrimental saline ingress.
We
have commissioned operational systems that produce adequate volumes
of fresh water to meet spray irrigation demands for a variety of crops,
following successful evaluation, installation and testing.
Abstracted water is pumped to high capacity lined storage reservoirs for application during dry weather periods. The storage reservoirs also introduce the option for controlled blending with moderately saline surface dyke drainage water, observing the specific crop chloride tolerances. Efficient use of this limited but renewed resource can effect a considerable financial saving and is preferable to the alternative option of the public potable water supply, but the greatest benefit has been recognised as significantly increased crop quality and market value and hence overall asset value. The company continues to innovate and refine the technical processes to optimise the safe abstraction yield.
Multiparameter - multichannel monitoring system The multiparameter - multichannel monitor system recently developed by Cosine Geoscience facilitates the abstraction control directly for the client user. Output digital data are processed and displayed graphically on the client computer in a form that is pre-configured for the specific abstraction site. The system is designed to be flexible and it is able to carry many different types of sensor device. It can be applied directly to monitor surface drainage water parameters for blending purposes, and may be considered for other unrelated geotechnical conditions such as detection of leachate plumes and slope instability. The system has been extensively field tested and is now installed and operational monitoring abstraction in the Lincolnshire Fens. The system shown measures and records the depth to the saline interface in three locations adjacent to the pit, pit groundwater conductivity to monitor changes of chloride content and TDS (pre-calibrated), water temperature for electrical conductivity correction factor and depth, at hourly (variable) intervals. Further development is in progress. Return to home | ||||
| For
further information
: E-mail : geoscience@cosine-ltd.com |
