The goal of Ecology Action Centre’s Groundswell Project is to improve groundwater management in communities with existing groundwater quantity issues and communities where groundwater is vulnerable or at-risk. In order to provide local-scale information to municipalities in order to make informed decisions, a groundwater monitoring well system has been developed and used in a number of local communities.
Groundwater monitoring in Nova Scotia currently relies on the provincial group Groundwater Observation Well Network (GOWN). This network provides important information about groundwater quantity and quality, however there aren’t enough wells across the province, particularly in vulnerable communities, where populations are growing quickly or have higher demands on low quality aquifers.
SWEPS Groundswell project was developed in order to monitor wells and create a secondary network which would be monitored by local community or environmental groups, while also contributing data to the main GOWN. Data obtained by the municipality from these wells could be the basis of their own monitoring program which would influence decisions on groundwater withdrawal, development, and other aspects of local governance. A number of wells in the Fall River area have been identified and are being used for the Groundswell Project which are re-visited annually by SWEPS volunteers.
For more information about the Groundswell Project visit EcoAction-Groundswell