Irish Groundwater Newsletter

Putting geoscientific information and maps at the core of land use decision-making, the Irish Groundwater Newsletter is a forum for the dissemination of information relating to the management and protection of groundwater.  The newsletter includes articles on a wide range of groundwater related issues.  ​​
  

Latest issue of the Irish Groundwater newsletter

Issue 59 contains articles on:

  • Sources of arsenic contamination in private drinking water supplies
  • Geochemically distinguishing groundwater sample sites using compositional data analysis (coda) methods
  • Distributed numerical model of a karst aquifer: Manorhamilton spring
  • An assessment of climate change impacts on Irish groundwater recharge
  • Investigating veterinary anti-parasitic drugs in emerging contaminants in Irish groundwater
  • A proposed method for improving bulk groundwater flow estimates in karstified flow systems considering dual porosity
  • Analysis of discharge data at eight karst springs in diffuse and conduit regionally important (karstified) aquifers
  • Updated national groundwater recharge map
  • New groundwater flood maps for Ireland
  • The GWClimate project – investigating climate change impacts to groundwater
  • GSI's regional assessment of groundwater resources 



Previous ​issues of the Groundwater Newsletters

IssueTopics​
No. 58 June 2019 

ISSN 2009-8324
  • ​Water Abstraction Registration and Control Regime
  • Developing a plan to protect drinking water into the future for the GWS sector
  • The Local Authority Waters Programme—Working together for healthy waters
  • Promoting the Profession-Engineers Ireland “The State of Ireland 2018 Report: A review of water/wastewater and flooding infrastructure in Ireland”

No. 57 June 2018

ISSN 2009-8324

 

 

 

  • ​Lessons from the past: Looking to the future. Donal Daly's reflections
  • Groundwater level fluctuations in Dublin 
  • Drinking Water Safety Plans
  • Sand and Gravel Aquifer Resource Mapping
  • A Standardised Physiographic Units Map for Ireland
  • New research in hydrogeology
  • Hydrogeological news including: introducing the Open Topographic Data Viewer - landscape revealed by LiDAR; Iron in Groundwater Leaflet; karst book; IAH Irish Group update

No. 56 December 2017

ISSN 2009-8324

  • Use of oil exploration data for the assessment of deep groundwater resources in coastal Tanzania
  • A hidden crisis: functionality of hand pumped boreholes
  • Is your well water safe to drink?
  • Uisce Aille - Lisdoonvarna Integrated Catchment Management Project

​No. 55 May 2017

ISSN 2009-8324

  • ​Potential impacts of fracking on water resources in two case study areas
  • Overview of the WFD Draft River Basin Management Plan 2018-2021
  • Water tracing in the Carran depression and River Fergus valley, Burren, Co. Clare
  • Karst from the skies
  • Waterborne pathogens and disease: Protozoa
  • Out of sight, out of mind? Groundwater as a source and pathway of antibiotic-resistant infection in the Republic of Ireland
  • Investigation of nitrate in two group water schemes - ECHN article

No. 54 December 2016

ISSN 2009-8324

  • ​A few words on the contribution to Irish hydrogeology of Eugene Daly (1947-2014)
  • The origins of the IAH Irish Group's annual conference
  • Managing OSWTS for drinking water protection
  • The Local Authority Waters and Communities Office—An introduction
  • Hydrogeology in the future – The next 40 years of IAH Ireland
  • Groundwater source protection terminology used in Ireland
  • New collaborative project on groundwater flooding commenced by GSI and TCD
  • The influence of bedrock hydrogeology on catchment-scale nitrate fate and transport in fractured aquifers
  • An investigation of thermal springs in Ireland: their provenance, pathways and geothermal potential
  • Environmental flow assessment for Irish rivers

​No. 53 March 2016

ISSN 2009-8324

  • ​GSI's priority groundwater mapping areas
  • Groundwater flooding in the Gort lowlands
  • Groundwater-surface water interactions: are our assumptions right?
  • Localising & assessing groundwater discharge to lakes using natural environmental tracers
  • Getting the pathogens out of groundwater: how, why and where
  • Groundwater pathogens and disease: viruses
  • Private wells, groundwater vulnerability and public health

​No. 52 July 2015

ISSN 2009-8324

  • ​Amendments of the EU Groundwater Directive
  • WFD Implementation and Integrated Catchment Management
  • Irish Groundwater Protection
  • National Inspection Plan for Domestic Wastewater Treatment Systems
  • Preliminary Source Protection for Group Water Schemes
  • Tellus: airborne geophysics and geochemistry surveying nationwide
  • The use of nitrate isotopes
  • Analysis of pumping test data using diagnostic plots
  • Peatland Restoration
  • The challenge of preventing sea water intrusion

No. 51 October 2013

ISSN 0790-7753

  • Integrated catchment management
  • Water-borne diseases: bacteria
  • Impacts of point sources in a river
  • National Inspection Plan for DWWTSs
  • Microbial contamination in a groundwater fed river (Nuenna)
  • Groundwater flooding
  • Ecosystem services
  • Fracture systems controlling groundwater flow
  • Flow in poorly productive aquifers
  • New IGI EIS Guidelines
  • IAH Karst field workshop report
  • GWS ZOC project

No. 50 July 2012

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Future of water/groundwater: a personal view
  • Future of groundwater: USA
  • Lessons from Australia
  • Groundwater management: luxury or priority?
  • Progression in groundwater: a Local Authority perspective
  • Challenges in karst
  • EPA monitoring network review
  • Mícheál MacCárthaigh
  • Tellus Border data
  • Hydraulic fracturing
No. 49 July 2011

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Integrated Constructed Wetlands
  • Clara bog: groundwater dependent ecosystem
  • Conservation status of turloughs
  • Hydrology of turloughs
  • High ammonia at Lough Owel
  • What's new in hydrogeology?
  • Aquifer parameters database
  • WFD implementation reports out
  • GW quality in Ireland 2007-2009
  • Nutrient status in water bodies
No. 48 November 2010

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Groundwater animals
  • Vulnerability mapping project
  • Land spreading buffer zones
  • Relative impacts of N and P
  • Conceptual Model of Lowland karst
  • Groundwater - lake interactions
  • The Pathways project
  • Low productivity aquifers
  • Groundwater hand pumps
  • QA in sampling and analysis
  • Assessing pollution trends
  • IAH annual field trip report
  • Aquifer parameters project
​No. 47 December 2009

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​EPA's Code of Practice OSWWTs
  • Causes of pollution of groundwater
  • Ireland's Group Water Schemes
  • Coastal groundwater
  • National Source Protection Project
  • Groundwater monitoring
​​No. 46 April 2007

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Groundwater maps online
  • Water Framework Directive: groundwater related outputs, monitoring groundwater- A new beginning, natural background levels
  • Book Review: 'Water Wells and Boreholes'
  • Karst springs survey
  • Drumlin permeability
  • On-Site wastewater treatment research: recent results
  • Private wells: health risks
  • Groundwater related research
​​No. 45 August 2005

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Study of nitrate leaching from tillage land
  • Role of water table in site suitability assessments for on-site wastewater treatment systems
  • Karst Drip Water Study: implications for groundwater vulnerability
  • Northern Ireland groundwater monitoring detects tsunami earthquake
  • Earthquakes & groundwater level records in Ireland
  • Groundwater and water supply in Palestine
  • Cork City's first waterworks redeveloped
​No. 44 January 2005

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Putting geoscientific information and maps at the core of land use decision-making
  • Septic tank systems: products to assist performance & management
  • New Statutory Instrument on bottled water quality
  • Uranium & groundwater
  • Transboundary groundwater law: Middle East context
  • Geothermal resource map of Ireland
  • Geothermal heating of County Council offices, Tullamore
  • New M.Sc. in Hydrogeology at Leeds University
​​No. 43 October 2004

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Lewis Clark: an appreciation
  • Groundwater maps now online
  • Septic tanks
  • Groundwater vulnerability: does the unsaturated zone have an influence?
  • Environmental Liability Directive 2004
  • Contaminated land: implications of recent European Court of Justice Judgement
  • IAH Prague 2003 conference report
​​No. 42 December 2003

ISSN 0790-7753

  • Cryptospiridium in a public water supply: Local Authority, Health Board and hydrogeological perspectives
  • The Walkerton pollution Incident
  • EPA licensing of contaminated land remediation
  • Acidising boreholes
  • Mapping karst features using microgravity
​​No. 41 December 2002

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Density of on-site systems houses in unsewered areas
  • Bypass flow in soils and subsoils
  • Climate change in Ireland
  • Research on groundwater
  • GSA Denver
No. 40 May 2002

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Water & sanitation in Honduras
  • EU Water Framework Directive
  • Microgravity in karst areas
  • Water tracing
  • A dispersion model for karstic aquifers
  • Water well drilling in a Locally Important Aquifer
  • Soil vapour surveying
  • Tips on pumping tests
​​No. 39 October 2001

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​On-site wastewater systems for single houses
  • Key issues for groundwater in the 21st century
  • New directory of active quarries, pits and mines
  • Recent publications on the karst of Ireland
  • Karst and wildlife
  • Conor MacDermot – An appreciation
​​No. 38 December 2000

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Number games with recharge
  • Storm water discharge to groundwater
  • Cryptospiridiosis outbreak in Northern Ireland
  • Practical approaches to preventing pollution of wells
  • Pollawaddy Cave, Co. Roscommon
  • Gypsum karst
  • A Discussion of sustainable sewage
  • Radon levels in St Petersburg region
  • Book on Celtic hydrogeology

​No. 37 July 2000

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Bugs in boreholes
  • Monitored natural attenuation
  • Impacts of urban groundwater on surface water in Birmingham
  • Nutrient removal from wastewaters
  • The quality of groundwater in Ireland
  • Ireland's environment: a millennium report
  • Sherkin Island conference proceedings
  • Farewell to John Dunne
​No. 36 December 1999

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Institute of Geologists of Ireland
  • The GSI Karst features database
  • Gypsum Karst
  • Maximising the probability of drilling a successful well
  • The future of global water resources
  • GSI web page
  • Total petroleum hydrocarbons

​​No. 35 May 1999

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​"Groundwater Protection Schemes"
  • "Groundwater Protection Responses for Landfills"
  • "Groundwater Protection Responses to the Land spreading of Organic Wastes"
  • Waste licensing: background and requirements
  • Forest soils classification
  • Groundwater recharge
  • Spring waters
  • Corrosion prevention
  • How many wells are there in Ireland?

​​No. 34 December 1998

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Phosphorus in Irish Aquifers
  • A rapid method of shallow profiling for site investigations
  • Corrosion
  • Categorising of limestones for development and protection purposes
  • Analysing pumping test data by the Logan method
  • New projects
  • Irish Geological Heritage Theme 1 – Karst
  • IAH congress in Las Vegas

​No. 33 May 1998

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Transmissivities of aquifers in Ireland
  • International Groundwater Standards
  • Assessing groundwater analyses: some useful tips
  • Use of structural geology, fracture analysis and stochastic flow modelling
  • Phosphorus in Irish Aquifers
  • Groundwater vulnerability research
  • Geothermal Association of Ireland
  • Cross -border co-operation in Geosciences

​​No. 32 November 1997

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Cryptosporidium
  • E. coli 0157
  • The Burdon Library
  • Where dilution is not the solution to point source pollution!
  • Testing the GSI groundwater vulnerability ratings
  • GEIXS
  • QSC graphs: a tool to assist in aquifer classification
  • IAH Technical Discussion Meetings

​No. 31 May 1997

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​National survey on low temperature geothermal energy
  • Seminar on the uses of low temperature geothermal energy
  • Epikarst: a 'new' concept in Irish hydrogeology
  • Groundwater protection in Glen Swilly
  • EIAs: an evaluation of the groundwater input
  • Hydrogeological research in Irish universities
  • Are consulting and good science compatible?

No. 30 November  1996

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Groundwater development successes in 1996
  • A new model for expedited clean-up
  • The disappearance of Lough Funshinagh
  • The role of geophysics in groundwater development
  • An international E-mail group
  • The importance of groundwater databases
  • Reviews

​​No. 29 July 1996

ISSN 0790-7753

  • Risk and risk management: a framework for Groundwater Protection Schemes
  • ​A review of wastewater treatment in unsewered areas
  • Book review
  • Wellhead protection in Iowa
  • Development of groundwater in coastal areas
  • Gaining sustainable water sources by listening and letting go
  • Irish speleology
  • GSI maps

​​No. 28 December 1995

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​The location of landfills on regionally important aquifers
  • GSI 150th anniversary environmental geology symposium
  • Hydrogeology of the Isle of Man
  • Working group on karst
  • Upcoming conference on weather and agriculture
  • High iron levels in groundwater

​​No. 27 June 1995

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Well construction standards
  • Protecting domestic boreholes
  • Geological faults and groundwater movement
  • Irish and British hydrogeology compared
  • Septic tank effluent
  • Packaged domestic effluent treatment plants
  • Solution rates in limestone
  • Mining in Karst areas in Hungary
  • Magnetic profiling

​​No. 26 January 1995

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Nitrogen usage and recovery
  • Silage effluent and groundwater
  • Landfill design and practice
  • LUST clean-ups
  • Acid mine drainage at Avoca
  • Groundwater in Nore river basin and south Wexford
  • Magnetometer profiling
  • The David Burdon papers
  • Septic tank conference
  • A return from Oman

​​No. 25 July 1994

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Guidelines on aquifer definition
  • Groundwater quality monitoring
  • Heavy metals in water
  • Magnetometer profiling
  • Water balance studies
  • Groundwater vulnerability guidelines and definitions
  • Irish bottled water
  • Hardness inhibitors

​​No. 24 January 1994

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Groundwater Protection Schemes
  • Hydrogeology of Northern Ireland
  • Well design and construction guidelines
  • Groundwater development in North Cork
  • Hydrochemistry
  • Reunion Island
  • Magnetometer profiling
  • Drilling News

​​No. 23 July 1993

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Dolomite aquifer of the South East
  • Bottled water standard
  • Groundwater in North Cork
  • Numerical modelling
  • GIS
  • VLF and groundwater
  • Slurry spreading and groundwater
  • Coal gasification sites
  • Septic tank systems

​​No. 22 February 1993

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Groundwater abstraction in County Wexford
  • Site selection, development and operation of landfills
  • Flooding in Gort area: causes and means of alleviation
  • Chemical analysis of water: uses and abuses
  • Water tracing
  • Drilling techniques
  • Groundwater Protection Scheme for County Limerick
  • Cost 65

​​No. 21 September 1992

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Landfill sites
  • Toxic wastes
  • The need for pumping tests
  • Hardness inhibitors
  • Groundwater in Wisconsin
  • Irish and EC Water and Waste Legislation
  • New publications
  • Stride projects

​​No. 20 March 1992

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Landfill sites
  • Toxic wastes
  • Local groundwater quality
  • Sheep dips and pollution
  • Hydraulic conductivity of Irish soils
  • Cone penetration testing
  • Groundwater levels

​​No. 19 August 1991

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Environmental engineering
  • Environmental geology
  • Agriculture and EIA's
  • Landfills and EIA's
  • Iron and manganese
  • Toxic wastes
  • On-site wastewater treatment
  • Permeability testing
  • Publications

​​No. 18 March 1991

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Toxic wastes in Europe
  • Nitrate Directive
  • Nitrates in E.C.
  • Nitrates in Fermoy area
  • Review of nitrates in Ireland
  • Septic tank systems

​​No. 17 November 1990

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Drought 1990
  • Water quality in County Sligo
  • Water quality in County Wexford
  • Toxic wastes
  • Land spreading of wastes
  • Groundwater in Czechoslovakia
  • Geology map of County Limerick

​​No. 16 August 1990

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Low water levels
  • Irish precipitation and the greenhouse effect
  • Toxic wastes in Europe
  • Landfill sites

​​No. 15 March 1990

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Nitrates in surface water and groundwater
  • Successful drilling at Lanesborough
  • Septic tank effluent treatment
  • GSI geological maps

​​No. 14 December 1989

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Siting boreholes on river flood plains
  • Peatland research
  • Trace organics
  • Farm effluent and water pollution act
  • Bacterial contamination of groundwater

​​No. 13 September 1989

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Point source pollution in County Offaly
  • K/Na ration as pollution indicator
  • Spring water quality
  • Geohydrology study of Clara and Raheenmore raised bogs
  • Synthetic organic chemicals

​No. 12 June 1989

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Leachate treatment by peat
  • Farm survey in Galway
  • Pollution planning and P.R.
  • Groundwater quality monitoring
  • Step tests
  • Tipperary natural mineral water
  • Education
​​No. 11 March 1989

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Portlaoise seminar
  • Farm survey in Galway
  • Septic tanks
  • "Dilute and disperse"?
  • Infiltration galleries
  • Applied geophysics in groundwater exploration
​​No. 10 December 1988

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Infiltration galleries
  • Scavenger wells
  • Cone penetration testing
  • Water resources management in South Australia
  • Letter from Oman
​​No. 9 September 1988

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Constructed wetlands and pollution control
  • Nitrates
  • Gas emissions from tip sites
  • Septic tanks
  • Leaking underground storage tanks
​​No. 8 June 1988

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Uses of peat on prevention of pollution
  • Group schemes
​​No. 7 March 1988

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Land drainage
  • Successful wells at Slane and Smithboro
  • Safe farm slurry disposal
  • Groundwater contamination
  • Septic tanks and groundwater pollution: remedies
  • David J Burden: an obituary
​​No. 6 December 1987

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Applied geophysics in groundwater exploration
  • Groundwater pollution incidents 1987
  • Silage effluent
  • Geophysics in groundwater development
  • Synthetic organic chemicals
  • Artesian wells in Kilkenny
  • Right to abstract
  • Waste disposal
​​No. 5 September 1987

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Applied geophysics in groundwater exploration
  • Permanent well points
  • South Wexford limestone aquifer
  • Groundwater in Carboniferous limestones in Wales
  • Drilling exhibition
  • Water quality and pollution: landfill in a karst area
  • Waste disposal sites and groundwater quality
  • Large scale potable water disinfection by UV
  • Septic tanks
  • Nitrate problems
​​No. 4 May 1987

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Aquifer protection in North Cork
  • Groundwater from poor aquifers
  • An unusual aquifer in Australia
  • Groundwater quality and pollution: hazard emergency mapping Yorkshire
  • Septic tanks and groundwater contamination: why and where?
  • Migration of enteric coliforms bacteria from a septic tank
​​No. 3 February 1987

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Disinfection of small water supplies
  • Emergency planning to protect groundwater resources
  • The septic tank system
  • Attenuation of inorganic nutrients from septic tank effluent
  • Treating supplementary groundwater sources
  • Groundwater from poor aquifers
  • Turloughs (karst)
  • Geohydrothermometry
​​No. 2 November 1986

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Groundwater development in Eritrea
  • North Monaghan limestone aquifer
  • The testing of large diameter hand dug wells
  • Groundwater resource assessment in Lesotho
  • Groundwater development in North Louth
  • Development of a marginal aquifer in North Cork
  • Bunnatober Spring, Headford, Co. Galway
  • Septic tanks and groundwater: an introduction
  • Septic tanks: a survey
  • Disinfecting small water supplies: is UV treatment the answer?
  • Information sources: GSI library
​​No. 1 August 1986

ISSN 0790-7753

  • ​Tullamore water supply
  • Kiltorcan aquifer system
  • Mitchelstown Water Supply Scheme
  • Hydrogeology of a limestone low-land in Co. Mayo
  • Development of the Devils Bit aquifer
  • Letterkenny water supply improvement scheme
  • A solution to Tuam' s problems
  • Groundwater Quality in South County Sligo
  • Geothermal energy in Ireland