Consents & licensing
Abstraction from and discharge to groundwater are controlled by the various environmental regulators in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The regulator for England and Wales is the Environment Agency (EA)
The various stages involved in obtaining consent for an open loop scheme in England and Wales are summarised below:
| Stage of work | EA control process |
| Drilling boreholes | WR32 Consent to drill |
| Test pumping boreholes | WR39 Water Features Survey. WR32 consent to test pump |
| Abstraction (final scheme) Discharge (final scheme) |
WR1 Abstraction licence application. Pumping test and impact assessment report. Environmental report if required. Consent to discharge application. Impact assessment report. |
zenithgeothermal have extensive experience in obtaining EA consents for groundwater and geothermal schemes, and have developed good working relationships with key personnel at many of the EA area offices.