 Some of the pumping stations are reversible, allowing water to be extracted from the drains into the main rivers in winter, and pumped from the rivers into the drains for irrigation in summer.Hatfield Chase is roughly bordered by the M18 motorway to the west, the River Ouse to the north, the River Idle to the south, and the A161 road through Epworth and the Isle of Axholme to the east.It covers an area of around , including two large peat bogs known as Thorne and Hatfield Moors, and is part of the once-vast Humberhead Levels, a wetland which originally covered some .