Groundwater & Surface Water Source Protection
The tragic events that occurred in Walkerton, Ontario in May, 2000 permanently heightened concern towards the protection of drinking water sources for the people of Ontario and provincial regulatory agencies. The passing of Ontario’s Safe Water Drinking Act and related drinking water system regulations in 2002 and 2003 have helped to ensure improved protection of Ontario’s drinking water and to prevent another Walkerton.
Groundwater source protection is the mapping of groundwater resources, the identification of contamination threats to regional and local groundwater use, and the development and implementation of groundwater source protection plans. Intera’s hydrogeologists, groundwater modelers and planners have provided technical leadership in groundwater source protection work in Ontario for over ten years. We have played an integral part in developing and implementing strategies to ensure the protection of Ontario’s drinking water sources.
Wellhead protection area studies are the principal focus of efforts to protect municipal groundwater drinking supplies. Such studies provide an understanding of the sources of groundwater and potential contamination surrounding a well or well field that supplies a public water system. With this understanding, municipalities can establish source protection plans that limit harmful land uses near wells and ensure the integrity of drinking water supplies.
Intera was one of the first companies to undertake comprehensive well head protection studies in Ontario for the Region of Waterloo in 1993. We bring to these studies expertise gained from over 20 years as an internationally recognized leader in the development and application of groundwater flow and transport models, particularly in more geologically complicated bedrock settings. We compile and evaluate available geologic and hydrogeologic data for these studies within a geographic information system (GIS).
We have extensive experience in all aspects of regional groundwater mapping, watershed source protection and well head protection studies. Typical well head and groundwater source protection projects undertaken by our staff include:
- Development of a regional groundwater flow model and time-of-travel capture zones for 32 municipal water supply wells in the City of Cambridge for Region of Waterloo
- Use of MODFLOW/MODPATH models to investigate surface water influence and road salt contamination to City of Cambridge municipal wells
- Delineation of municipal wellhead protection areas using forward particle tracking to estimate surface to well aquifer transit (SWAT) times for Region of Waterloo
- Delineation of time-of-travel capture zones for the Middleton Street well field using field hydraulic and tracer testing, geochemistry and computer modeling for Region of Waterloo
- Well head protection studies for Killaloe, Beachburg, Haley Townsite and Almonte, for Mississippi Valley Conservation under MOE 2001/2002 Groundwater Studies Program
- Regional groundwater/aquifer mapping and well head protection studies for Township of Shedden and Town of Cochrane under MOE 2003 Groundwater Studies Program
- Peer review of regional groundwater/aquifer characterization and well head protection studies for Trent Conservation Coalition, Raisin Region Conservation Authority and City of Ottawa
- MOE peer reviewer for municipal well water supplies potentially under the direct influence of surface water
Intera News & Updates
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22/03/2010 Intera wins 3-year contract for gas transport modelling of the Lasgit Experiment (Large Scale Gas Injection Test).
12/02/2010
3 years and 5000 metres later: drilling at DGR is now complete.
25/02/2010
Dr. Robert Walsh provides mView and TOUGH2 training to Nippon-Koei Research Division in Tsukuba-shi, Japan.
28/01/2010
New Website released.
