Groundwater vulnerability is the susceptibility of underground water resources to pollution by various activities and contaminants. This vulnerability tends to be lower where soils are thicker and more organic and clay-rich; where there is a general absence of fractures in the bedrock formations, and/or where the water table is deeper, providing a significant unsaturated zone. These factors reduce and/or slow the amount of water moving downwards and are also important for attenuating a wide range of contaminants prior to reaching the water table.
There are a large number of activities with the potential to contaminate groundwater. Examples include septic tank discharge, aggregate operations, livestock operations, use of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture or residential lawn care, landfills and other sources of contamination. A technique that can appropriately designate land areas into areas of high and low groundwater vulnerability and address a range of activities is therefore useful for identifying locations where such activities have a higher risk of contaminating groundwater. Once identified, different areas of vulnerability can then be subjected to land use restrictions or targeted for more detailed assessment. This information will be valuable to the general public, municipalities and government. This information can be used to help direct development activities and inform stakeholders as to the risk certain activities can pose to the health and safety of groundwater and to the people who rely upon groundwater for drinking water supplies.
It is equally important to understand the capacity of the aquifer for current and future groundwater development and the groundwater quality. The process will generally involve but not limited to delimiting all the aquifers and the recharge areas within the boundary of the RM, annual recharge calculations based on the recharge area and precipitation, existing water right licenses, calculation of maximum sustainable withdrawal, potential for further groundwater development from different aquifers and water quality mapping. This information will be useful to help direct the new development in a sustainable and cost effective manner.
To ensure sustainable, clean and safe drinking water for the RM of Springfield and surrounding municipalities, the Water & Waste Department of RM is requesting proposals to undertake a study on groundwater vulnerability and Capability of the aquifers. This study will result in a suite of aquifer maps, data, Groundwater Vulnerability maps and water quality maps for the RM of Springfield. Deliverables will include (but not be limited to):
• Aquifer mapping
• Groundwater protection zones and hydrogeological data;
• Vulnerability mapping and scoring
• Groundwater Baseline Risk Assessment for contamination
• Outcrop locations and depth to bedrock
• Water Quality mapping
• Recharge & Capability data
• Well head protection measures for RM'sexisting wells
