Sites needed to monitor the groundwater in SNBR and all of NS
What is groundwater? Groundwater is water that completely fills the spaces in the ground beneath us.
Think of a sponge that is sitting in a bowl of water: the water level (or water table) is the water surface within the sponge, and groundwater is the water in the lower portion of the sponge! Groundwater is always moving, most of the time it flows in the same direction of the ground above it, toward low areas like streams or ponds, which gives the local elevation of the water table.
A new project called Groundswell is finding out how groundwater levels are changing in communities across the province, and it’s free! The basis of the project is to find water wells that could be used for long term monitoring. If you have a drilled well that is not in use , Groundswell might be able to use it as a long-term monitoring site. Your well could provide water level information for your whole community!
What is Project Coordinator Jennifer West looking for?
Wells that are:
Unused (Do you know of an extra well at the back of someone’s property? An unused well on a vacant property? Or a well that was used for a groundwater study?)
Drilled (Unfortunately dug wells can’t be used for this project.)
The project is free, and only requires your permission to access the well and install a small monitoring device in it. Trained volunteers from your community will visit the well several times each year to upload the data, which will be available online for municipal planners, consultants, researchers and every day citizens like you.
Contact Jennifer West, Project Coordinator EAC if you know of a possible site at 902 -442 -5046, and visit the project website at www.ecologyaction.ca