Students wrap up groundwater sampling project in northwestern Ontario but there's likely more to come

A team of university students led by the Ontario Geological Survey (OGS) wrapped up its regional groundwater sampling in Thunder Bay, Ont., this past weekend.

In recent weeks, the team mapped around the Thunder Bay area — the largest northwestern Ontario population — to study how groundwater geochemistry can change based on the major bodies of rock and/or sediments in the region.

The research was part of the OGS's efforts to collect data across northern Ontario following the upward provincewide expansion of its Ambient Groundwater Geochemistry Project in 2016.

"As the population of Ontario expands into northern Ontario and these more rural communities, more and more people will be using groundwater as their primary water supply," said Kayla Dell, a surficial geochemist with the OGS and the project lead in the Thunder Bay area.

"So it's important to understand where this water is coming from and understand the different natural effects that might be affecting it."

She added the scientific study findings will support public information, which municipalities, conservation authorities and other ministries can use once available.

Lucas Perreault, a University of Toronto student and senior geological assistant for the project, helped co-ordinate and find wells to sample as well as document and manage their records during the on-field site visits.

He said it was interesting to figure out and gain an understanding of how "our world kind of operates without us even thinking."

"I think that scientific aspect of the project is really interesting from a student and learning standpoint," said Perreault. "I feel like I can learn a lot on a daily basis."

This year, the team also handed out flyers and started a new program that allows people to use QR codes to schedule appointments for groundwater sampling beforehand. 

In return for helping with their program, the team provided their results to participating homeowners.

Helping homeowners through water testing

Tammy Cook, CEO of the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority, was among the homeowners who participated.

Cook said this data will benefit homeowners by providing early warning for any exceedances they see in their wells, and help them treat their water to have a safe, private drinking water supply.

"It's a different program than source water protection, which the conservation authority administers, which protects municipal drinking water systems," said Cook. "There really is no program in place for people to test their own water unless they want to pay themselves. So, this has been a great effort."

She added she supported the project not only because it allowed access to her well results, but because of the importance of collecting data in northern Ontario. 

"I think there's been a lot of work done in southern Ontario, but it's exciting to see that there's been interest in northern Ontario and we're also part of the study going forward," said Cook.

Project 'on this scale' hasn't been done before

With this increase in regional scale, the team had to face the challenge of working with Thunder Bay's sparse and more spread-out population.

"We do five by five kilometre squares. You want to get two wells in each of those squares: one dug into bedrock and one in the overburden," said Charlotte Eberlein, a University of Ottawa student and junior geological assistant for the OGS, who helped with their instrument set-up.

"But it's just so hard to find people because there's not as many people up here as there are down south … but people have been very accommodating and very nice up here."

Rory Yantha, a fellow junior geological assistant from Toronto Metropolitan University, agreed it was difficult to find people who were available to let them sample.

"We show up at people's homes when everybody else is working, and then when people come home, our days are over as well," said Yantha. "So it's just kind of like a luck of the draw situation where we kind of show up and hope that there's people home."

But the data from the project will help them produce geo-surficial maps, which will be interesting to look at in the future as water resources become "more valuable every day," Yantha said.

The team said it will likely return in the next couple of years to gather samples in areas they did not cover this year.