Water pollution

Water sampling

The pools owned by Wycombe District Council are sampled on a monthly basis. These include Risborough Springs, Court Garden, and Wycombe Sports Centre. Bacteriological parameters (coliform, E.coli counts) and chemical parameters (pH, free, combined and total chlorine, total dissolved solids) are monitored.

Private water supplies

In general terms a private water supply is any water supply which is not provided by a water company. It is not a "mains" supply. The source may be a well, borehole, spring, stream, river, lake or pond. There are 60 private water supplies within Wycombe district (all boreholes). One of these is a large commercial supply, for up to 500 people. This supply is sampled and monitored at least every two months.

The remaining private water supplies within the district are all small domestic water supplies and are sampled on a five yearly rotational basis. These supplies can also be sampled outside of the sample rota, for a small charge on request from the property owner.

Basic parameters (pH, conductivity, nitrate, taste, odour, total coliform's, faecal coliforms, lead, turbidity), additional parameters (Sulphate, iron, sodium, total hardness, alkalinity, zinc, chloride, ammonium, magnesium, manganese, oxidisability, copper, fluoride, nitrate, calcium, aluminium, potassium, colour) plus pesticides (Urea Herbicides, Triazine Herbicides, Organochlorine pesticides), can be tested for depending on the requirements of the sample rota.

New private water supply regulations are due to be published within the next few years. These regulations will be based more on risk assessment basis, requiring auditing of the supply system and potential hazards. It is felt that this will be more proactive than just sampling. Wycombe District Council are therefore starting to risk assess private water supplies that are visited as part of the sample rota.