Abstracts

completed in productive overburden aquifers within and beneath the Waterloo Moraine.
The wells are capable of supplying water at rates that meet the Region’s projected 2031
water demands without causing negative impacts on other water uses. Similarly, the wells
in Cambridge are completed in productive overburden and bedrock aquifers that are able
to meet the 2031 demands without negatively impacting other water uses. If the Region
continues to proactively manage the quantity and quality of their groundwater supplies, the
groundwater resources will be available for residents of the Region for generations to come.
172 - Region of Waterloo Tier Three Water Budget - Now What?
Richard Wootton
Region of Waterloo, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Paul Martin & Patricia Meyer
Matrix Solutions Inc., Breslau, Ontario, Canada
The Region of Waterloo’s Tier Three Water Budget and Local Area Risk Assessment has
recently been completed. The Risk Levels applied to the four delineated Local Areas were
identified as “Low” suggesting the Region has sufficient water resources to meet current
and future (2031) water demands. Despite the Low Risk Level, a number of knowledge
and data gaps were noted in the Tier Three Assessment. The most significant knowledge
and data gaps, from a water supply and risk management measures perspective, included
interaction between the municipal groundwater aquifers and urban streams/creeks and
wetlands, and interaction between municipal well fields through the deep overburden or
shallow bedrock aquifers within the Local Areas.
Going forward the Region plans to develop an integrated groundwater and surface water
monitoring program. The insights gained from the Tier Three groundwater flow model
will be used to guide program implementation. The program will target collection of
groundwater and surface water data in areas where there is potential for streams, creeks
and wetlands to be influenced by municipal groundwater pumping, but knowledge and
data gaps prevent conclusive analyses.
The program will be designed to augment existing groundwater and surface water monitoring
programs and focus on collecting data to integrate understanding of groundwater
and surface water systems. It specifically will incorporate Tier Three recommendations for
drilling boreholes and constructing new monitoring wells at strategic locations, installing
stream flow gauges and streambed mini-piezometers, expanding and/or collecting more
frequent groundwater level measurements in existing monitoring wells, and utilizing readily
available spatial data (e.g., landsat imagery, historical airphotos).The data collected could
be used to support permit to take water applications and where necessary, help establish
adaptive management plans for water takings within the Region.
IAH-CNC 2015 WATERLOO CONFERENCE
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