Wondering where the water flows
By Neil Horner - Parksville Qualicum Beach News
Published: May 18, 2009 4:00 PM

New study will identify Englishman River watershed flows and water quality
Ray Francis, president of the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board, presents a cheque to for $15,000 to MVIHES treasurer Shirley Hine as hydrologist Dr. Gilles Wendling, Michele Deakin and Faye Smith, look on.

Central Island residents will soon have a much clearer vision of where their groundwater comes from and goes, thanks to a study being conducted by the Mid-Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society.

Group spokesperson Michele Deakin said the aim of the study is to gather all the existing information on groundwater flow in the Englishman River watershed and identify gaps in the available knowledge.

“We will look at results from years of water quality testing, water flow monitoring information on water licenses, that sort of thing,” she said. “That will show us where there are gaps in the information. Then what we will do is look at starting to monitor the groundwater, putting loggers on residential wells to try to determine where the groundwater is flowing.”

Deakin said the study is important, as increasing pressures of development put strain on the existing water supply.

“We know our aquifers are not recharging,” she said. “Water levels are lower than in 2006, when people’s wells dried up and they barely made it to the fall rains. We don’t know how much groundwater we have, because it has never been mapped.”

Deakin said she hopes the study, funded by a $15,000 donation from the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board, will be a template, used throughout the area.

“We are aiming to hold a public information meeting in mid-June,” Deakin said. “At that time we will give more information to the public on what we think we need to do with this monitoring, look at some potential areas and talk to the community about getting involved.”

The mapping project, she said, will be overseen by hydrologist Dr. Gilles Wendling, who will pull together information that will allow the group to focus in on one area in the watershed for a more detailed examination.

“The cost to do the whole watershed at once would be astronomical,” she said. “It’s better from a logistical and scientific point of view to pick an area and focus on that.