Tuesday, December 4, 2007 : 2:00 p.m.

North Battleford Well Capture Zone study

Robert Stewart, Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration

The City of North Battleford, a rural community of 14,000 located in Western Saskatchewan, depends on ground water extracted from a local well field adjacent the North Saskatchewan River as its primary water supply. Unfortunately, the North Battleford wells undergo rapid deterioration in both well capacity and water quality. As a result, the city is conducting a 2-year water well capture zone study at the North Battleford well field.

 

The research involves the construction of two new ground water extraction wells; one acting as a control well, and the second will be equipped with a new technology (impressed current system) intended to prevent water well deterioration. This study is investigating the impacts of physical, chemical and biological changes that occur in a well completion interval and associated environment.

 

Project Information

 

Earth materials have been logged and classified to determine carbon and inorganic content and the nature and density of the biological community at time zero.

 

Water and sediment samples have been analyzed for stable isotopes, oxygen 18, and Carbon 13 to assess the status of the in situ microbial community. Samples will also be subjected to conventional culture-based analyses (plate counts, carbon utilization spectra), and extracted for community DNA

 

A combination of culture and molecular monitoring of the ground water will be conducted to assess the bacteria quantity and type wit time and position form the extraction well. Continuous monitoring and the redox environment around both Wells using a data logger allows an assessment of geochemical events that can impact and be reflective of the bacterial activity in the well environment.

 

Monitoring changes in water quality and earth materials with time and space in the aquifer and well capture zone will provide understanding of the biological and chemical mechanisms and rates of reactions occurring in the aquifer during well deterioration.

Robert Stewart, Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration Bob Stewart has over 30 year experience in the groundwater industry in private consulting practice, as provincial regulator and in federal government groundwater research with emphasis on water well rehabilitation and use of preventative maintenance chemicals to pre-empt the growth of biofilms in the water well environment.


2007 NGWA Ground Water Expo and Annual Meeting