the junction of Abbey Road and Manning Road, which are authorised to abstract up to 25 Mld (megalitres per day), although they normally abstract around 16 Mld. The water is oxygenated, chlorinated to disinfect it, and checked for clarity. It is then pumped into the public supply network, most of it passing along an pipeline to Spalding Tower. Water for Spalding has been obtained from the aquifer below Bourne since 1894, when the first borehole was drilled to a depth of . Boreholes proliferated, and there were about 130 around the town by 1969. Most of these have since been sealed up, and only Anglian Water operates boreholes within the town. In the late 1960s, engineers began to appreciate that water was being removed from the aquifer at rates which were not sustainable, and several important studies took place to assess the situation. These coincided with a period of low rainfall, which reduced the speed at which the aquifer would recharge. Housing development at Peterborough was expected to require an extra 100 Mld to maintain the public water supply, and it was thought that this could be obtained from the aquifer. However, since the passing of the Water Resources Act 1963, all abstraction had to be licensed, and investigation showed that the aquifer was already being over-abstracted. It was thought that it could supply around 68 Mld, but licences at the time allowed 139 Mld to be abstracted, although only 77 Mld actually were. This imbalance meant that an alternative water supply for Peterborough had to be found, and resulted in the construction of Rutland Water. These conditions led to a steady lowering of water levels within the aquifer, which were particularly bad in the mid-1970s, when river flows were significantly reduced. Abstraction from the aquifer was reduced, and river flows increased, but the lack of water in the River Glen led to most of the fish dying, and fish populations had still not recovered ten years later. Bourne Eau dried up in 1972, and the curate of the Abbey Church inspired a group of 30 young people to remove all of the rubbish from the muddy river bed. At that time, the existence of a number of wild artesian boreholes was recorded, but attempts to repair one of them proved difficult, and no further action was taken. A wild borehole is one where the discharge of water is no