Abstract:
Water collecting in the commune of Penne was meant to offer an option to the polluted and scarce water resources of the liasic limestone aquifer layer through a planned and reasonable exploitation of the Jurassic reserves. Three underground streams actually supply the whole commune territory - the largest in the Tarn department - with good water which does not suffer any summer depletion. The civil engineering work, the electro-mechanical fittings, the proper fixtures which followed the preliminary surveys were made by unpaid amateur cavers from several clubs of the caving district committee gathered in the ATEK (Association Tarnaise d'Etudes Karstiques). Different methods and techniques have been used to collect water on the following three sites: - the underground stream of Cabeou and the building of a storage dam of 500 m3 which was put into service in 1984 on the limestone plateau of the Garrigue; - the undergroung stream of Amiel where a 25 meter deep well was drilled through hard rock and which has supplied the village with water since 1985; - and the underground stream of Madeleine whose pumping station protected by a dam has increased the water resources of the right bank of the Aveyron river since 1989.