All about Island Aquifers

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - This is the third in a series of programs arising from an interview with Quadra ICAN water security team members Jude McCormick, Kris Wellstein, Bernie Amell and Mike Gall. In a previous episode, they listed evidences that the groundwater supply is diminishing. This episode is dedicated to the sources of Quadra island’s groundwater and the things affecting them.

Amell explained that only a limited amount of data is available. Some people have registered their wells and there is a provincial groundwater observation well near the corner of Heriot Bay and Smith Roads.

“The first indication we have is that there are several different aquifer layers below the south part of the island, plus the karse typography which is the same thing that generates limestone caves, in the north part of the island,” he said. “We think that’s the major source of the water that is in the centre of the island. It would be seepage out of the karse typography,” he said.

He stressed the need to understand these water sources, what they mean to Quadra Island and how the island needs to adapt to further climate change.

Gall added, “Climate change is one thing we are concerned with, but the other is how we affect surface precipitation getting down to the aquifer systems through development. Every hard surface that we add, or change in the topography when we develop, affects the ability of the aquifer to recharge. Each road, every ditch creates new drainage lines that weren’t previously there.”

Screenshot from chart of Heriot Bay Road Groundwater level - courtesy BC Government