Groundwater Management from CA Rich Inc.

Groundwater Management

Situation

An affluent community wanted to develop an aquifer map that would help planning authorities revise zoning to protect and preserve their future water resources. The Planning Board and Engineers, as well as numerous citizens became keenly interested in the project, thus raising its profile publicly.

Situation

CA RICH recognized early on that although the Town had asked for a specific scope and solution, it really needed a more comprehensive review to meet their goal of guiding their future development. In addition to mapping their aquifers and sensitive areas for water resource purposes, there was a need to know the future availability of water, the impact of existing and planned land use, the status of existing water resources, potential threats to sustainable potability of those sources, the extent of ‘capture zones’ around municipal well fields to ensure future spills could be addressed in an emergency fashion, and the feasibility of setting aside open space to protect both sensitive recharge areas and underlying groundwater resources for many years to come.

CA RICH performed surveys to identify problems with existing wells. The Town was then divided into sections, showing areas that could support additional development, those that could not support additional development, areas where there was not enough water to support existing infrastructures and recommendations on supplementing the existing water supply. Armed with this new information, the Town augmented its public water supply, supplementing the existing water deficiencies.