West Berkshire Groundwater Scheme

If you went up Boham’s road to Churn last Autumn, you may have noticed some cranes and workmen operating on the triangle where the road bears left and there is right turn to Saltbox.

Did you wonder what they were doing?

There is a pumping station here which is part of the West Berkshire Groundwater Scheme. This is owned by the Environment Agency and operated as a strategic water resource during drought conditions. The scheme consists of 32 boreholes (90 to 195m deep) and pumping stations connected to 10 outfalls through 87Km of pipeline across West Berkshire. The boreholes go into the Chalk and Upper Greensand aquifers. It was commissioned in 1976 and was developed in response to previous droughts. The concept is that the groundwater pumped out from these sites will be added to the River Thames via its tributaries which will increase the amount of water available for abstraction in the Lower Thames for the London Reservoirs.

The scheme has never been used in earnest but some of the boreholes were pumped for a month in late October 2022 to supplement flows in the River Kennet. The intention was to increase flows by 80Ml/d for abstraction lower down the river network. By that time though, it has started to rain so the impact on river flows was unclear. More information can be found on the Environment Agency’s website.

The work at Churn was to replace the pumps and control panels, automate operations and

modernise the infrastructure. Given the drought of 2025 and climate change, maybe the scheme will be called into use more frequently in future.

Jane Kinniburgh