Groundswell: Community-Based Groundwater Monitoring
Success!

We are thrilled with the success of Groundswell so far!  We have six sites and aim to have ten by the end of 2012!  Groundswell is improving our understanding of groundwater resources by increasing monitoring across the province.  Community groups have been trained in the monitoring steps, and collect the information a few times a year. 
• Three sites are currently collecting water level data, in Waverley, Fall River and South Uniacke
• Sites are monitored by our friends at the Sackville Rivers Association and the Shubenacadie Watershed Environmental Protection Society.  Thank you!
• More than 10 000 data points of water levels have been collected so far! 

View the Data Now!

Click here to view the results of April to present groundwater monitoring data at three sites.  
    

Moving Forward
 

We are looking for new monitoring sites!  Do you know of an unused drilled well in your community?  Maybe it could be used for monitoring! Equipment and training is free, and it could result in a better understanding of water resources in your area for years to come!  Please contact Jennifer (groundwater @ ecologyaction . ca) for more information.  Talk to you soon!

The Groundswell Project

Groundswell aims to promote expansion of this network by connecting community groups with monitoring wells, and allowing community-based monitoring of local groundwater resources. Community groups will visit wells in their area on a regular schedule to assess the data logger, collect a water level measurement, and upload the data. This will
• allow the community to participate in groundwater monitoring and build an awareness of groundwater issues;
• create a more continuous water level dataset by minimizing periods of time when the logger is down;
• reduce government labour required to visit the wells; and
• reduce the number of telemetric units required.
 

Background
 

In Nova Scotia, 46% of people draw directly from local groundwater resources for their water. Although the quality of groundwater is generally good in most areas, some regions face poor quality water, or poor yields from their drilled wells. Groundwater monitoring in Nova Scotia currently uses the provincially run Groundwater Observation Well Network (GOWN). Established in 1965, the network monitors groundwater quality and levels to evaluate the impact of human activities on groundwater and long term trends associated with issues such as climate change.

The provincial network consists of 37 monitoring wells distributed across the province; these wells collect groundwater elevations every hour using electronic data loggers and telemetric units which send data to a central computer. The wells are visited by a field technician twice per year in order to assess the data loggers and manually field-verify the water level. Water samples are periodically collected from the wells to assess groundwater quality. Nova Scotia Environment provides all of the data collected from these wells to the public using an online database. Users can download long term groundwater data for any of the wells. Additionally, yearly reports are completed to review activities in the network, and highlight water level or quality changes recorded at each of the wells.
Currently, the GOWN is at maximum capacity. Although expanding the network would provide information about groundwater resources in more areas of the province, some of which are facing development or industry issues and are in dire need of information about their aquifers, the cost of adding wells, with logging equipment, and visiting more wells regularly, is prohibitive.

The Groundswell project would not be possible without generous funding from the following sponsors: