By Selena Cole 

Many communities in British Columbia are currently under water restrictions because of drought. 

Even areas known for coastal rain forests are under the highest water use restriction – Stage 4 – meaning that all outdoor water use (watering lawns, washing cars, filling pools, etc.), including watering food crops on farms, is prohibited. Most of us on the mountain get our water from wells that draw it from hundreds of feet below ground. This doesn’t mean that this source isn’t impacted by drought or overuse, especially in times of drought. 

While each property has its own water well, it’s likely drilled into the same aquifer as your neighbour’s well. This means that we are all getting our water from a common limited source. Lower rainfall, declining water levels in lakes and rivers, and more rapid snowmelt in the spring because of unseasonably hot weather, means less water is reaching the deep aquifers where our well water comes from. 

Water wells on Anarchist Mountain (Groundwater Wells and Aquifers – Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca)) 

Drought and overuse don’t just impact water quantity, but the quality of water pumped from your well. As groundwater sources are strained, sedimentation and the concentration of minerals like iron and calcium can increase, which, depending on the filtration system in your home, can impact the taste and colour of well water. 

A big part of the sustainable and responsible use of groundwater includes understanding how water cycles to and from underground; the common terms associated with water wells and groundwater; where to find information about your water well; and how to test the quality of water coming out of your well. 

The Hydrologic Cycle – short and sweet 

Water in the form of rain and snow seeps or infiltrates into the ground. It is removed from the ground by evaporation, plant usage, or pumping. If more of the infiltrating water is removed by evaporation or plants, less makes it to the aquifers our wells are drilled into. 

More detailed info on this topic can be found here: https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/oceanography/ocean-earth-system/ocean-water-cycle https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Groundwater_as_a_part_of_the_hydrologic_cycle 

Water well terms – the lowdown Water well ‘lingo’ is pretty geeky, but here are a few terms that get thrown around by water well and groundwater professionals. 

Aquifer – a water bearing geologic formation(s) that stores and/or transmits water. Our aquifer is in bedrock and the ability to transmit water is dependent on the number of fractures in the bedrock. 

Biofouling – occurs when wells/pumping systems are impacted by unwanted bacteria and microorganisms, like E.coli or fecal coliforms (the bugs thriving in our septic fields). Do you smell eggs? Sulphur bacteria. Do you have a reddish scum on your plumbing fixtures? Iron bacteria. 

Borehole – a circular hole made by ‘boring’ or drilling underground to access a particular location in sand or bedrock. 

Casing – a pipe (usually galvanized steel) lowered into a borehole during or after drilling. This is what you see at surface. 

Drawdown – a lowering of the groundwater surface caused by pumping. 

Permeability – the capacity of a rock or sediment to transmit water. Again, the permeability of our aquifers depends on the number of fractures in the bedrock. More fractures = more flow. 

Screen – a section of well casing which has been perforated or slotted to allow inflow of water and to keep unwanted materials like sand and gravel from entering the well. Many wells on Anarchist do not have screens because the bedrock is solid enough to prevent the borehole from caving in. The downside of this can be increased sediment coming up with the water. 

Shocking – disinfecting a well to eliminate those unwanted visitors we just talked about above. Shock chlorination is the most common method. You can read up on it here: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/air-land-water/water/water-wells/bc_gov_5402_water_well_disinfection_webbrochure.pdf 

Well Development – the act of repairing damage to a geological formation caused by drilling and increasing the porosity and permeability of the material surrounding the intake portion of a well. 

Well Yield – the amount of water that can be withdrawn from a well per unit of time (e.g., gallons per minute). While these values are typically stable, changing well conditions or drought conditions can reduce the well yield over time. 

Where to go to get in the know 

Since February 2016, under the Water Sustainability Act, the BC Government has been collecting information about all domestic water wells drilled, altered or decommissioned in the province. The registration of this information and its inclusion in the provincial database, ensures that water well use can be monitored and that domestic wells are considered when the government makes decisions, especially during periods of serious water scarcity. 

Information about your water well – date drilled, total depth, yield (gallons/minute), geology – can be found by going to the following link https://apps.nrs.gov.bc.ca/gwells/. You’ll need to search using the well tag or well ID number which can be found attached to the cap on your well, or your address. You can also zoom in on the map to locate your well geographically. 

If you’ve noticed a change in the colour or taste of your well water, you may want to have the quality tested. There are a number of local water well testing companies that can help. If you want to test your own water, HealthLinkBC provides a list of qualified laboratories in our area that can test a sample from your well for bacteria and chemicals. See the following link for more information https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthlinkbc-files/well-water-testing 

If you’re interested in learning more about groundwater and your water well, there are lots of helpful videos available on the internet. Here are a couple to get you started. Interested in a wildlife or environment-related topic linked to life on Anarchist Mountain that you think others in the community would want to learn about? Contact the Wildlife Safety Program at wildlife@amfrs.ca 

Selena Cole is an environmental scientist who resides on the mountain. She is also the program lead for Wildlife Safety Program for AMFRS.