Project: River Wells Groundwater Flow Model 

Client: Regional Municipality of Waterloo (RMOW) 

Objectives:

• Develop an integrated groundwater/surface water model of three well fields in the Grand River basin. 
• Evaluate the sensitivity of the well fields to surface-water contamination. 

Outcomes:

• A detailed understanding of the interaction between the Grand River and the aquifer.
• A useful management tool that allows RMOW staff to perform additional simulations.

Key Aspects:

• A well database that is fully integrated with the hydrogeologic model simulations.
• Fully transient calibration used to evaluate changes due to drought conditions.

Project Description:

EarthFX staff developed a well-field scale model of the Forwell, Pompeii and Woolner well fields (referred to as the 'River Wells') along the banks of the Grand River, in south-east Kitchener, Ontario.  The five-layer model was built on a comprehensive groundwater database that contains approximately 2,000 wells.  Detailed calibration to surface-water flows demonstrated that as pumping increased, the flow direction from the aquifer to the river reversed, and up to 60% of the well water was drawn from the river at maximum pumping rates.  Calibration to a long-term transient pumping test was used to calibrate the porosity estimate, which significantly affected capture-zone analyses.  Sensitivity analyses looked at the effects of urban development, drought conditions, gravel-pit dewatering and extraction.

Applications:

The RMOW has standardized on the VIEWLOG groundwater management system for all hydrogeologic data management.

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