Access Grimshaw Gravels Aquifer Lobe Overlay
Click here and follow the following steps
- Click on the "Guest" button
- Top right corner of the screen, click on the Map Layers icon
- Scroll down to the "Special Features" section
- Click on Grimshaw Gravels Aquifer and unclick other options
This will produce the lobe images. You can scroll in to enlarge the map.
Below is the link to the Grimshaw Gravel Aquifer Source Water Protection Plan:
Grimshaw Gravels Aquifer Source Water Protection Plan
The Grimshaw Gravels Aquifer Management Advisory Association is inviting residents who live within the boundaries of the Grimshaw Gravels Aquifer and have private working wells to participate in an ongoing water quality monitoring program. Participants are requested to test their water well up to twice per year and forward the data sheet, along with the well depth, to the MD of Peace No.135 office in Berwyn. The purpose of this program is to ensure the long-term health of our Aquifer sample bottles can be picked up at the Public Health Office in Peace River or Fairview.
If you require more information, please contact the MD of Peace office at 780-338-3845 or email info@mdpeace.com
Gravels Aquifer Management Advisory Association
In June of 1993, Hugh Bailey from PFRA called a meeting of interested parties to address the following:
- can the aquifer sustain present use?
- to be pro-active in protecting against contamination of the aquifer due to sump holes, borrow pits, gravel pits and abandoned wells, which may allow pesticides to drain into the aquifer.
The committee representatives were from the Municipalities of MD of Clear Hills No. 21 (now Clear Hills County), MD of Fairview No. 136, MD of Peace No. 135, MD of Northern Lights No. 22 (now the County of Northern Lights), the Town of Grimshaw, the Village of Berwyn, and representatives from the Water Cooperatives of Griffin Creek, Weberville, and East Grimshaw. The technical advisors were from PFRA, Alberta Agriculture and Alberta Environment. The Mackenzie Regional Planning Commission provided secretarial services. The committee agreed to develop a community focused management plan for the Grimshaw Gravels Aquifer.
General Location plan – The aquifer is present in the four rural municipalities with users of aquifer also including Grimshaw and Berwyn.
The Committee’s goal was to develop an aquifer management plan that stressed the wise use of groundwater and to encourage practises that will protect the groundwater from contamination.
From time to time, other technical representatives from Alberta Labour and Public Health attended the meetings to provide information on sewage disposal regulations and the effects that may have on the aquifer.
Local municipalities provided locations of active and inactive gravel pits, municipal, provincial and private public wells, sewage lagoons and landfill sites.
Each municipality surveyed landowners with property located above the aquifer to determine their usage of water. The questionnaire contained questions on well data, depth, static water level, diameter, active or inactive, usage, and location of wells in relation to buildings, corrals, and sewage systems.
Landowners were asked for opinions on water quality, quantity, safety of the drinking water, taste, odour, scaling or corrosion of water pipes and to indicate what they felt were potential sources of water contamination.
The landowners were also asked to indicate what type of information would be useful to them in managing their own farm/residential water supply. In 1994/95 a consultant prepared a hydrogeology study.
Using the information, as well as technical and statistical information existing in provincial government departments, the Committee decided to produce a technical report on the aquifer which would provide the Committee with the information needed to make informed decisions on aquifer related issues with the goal of ensuring sustainable development.
Grimshaw Gravels Aquifer Tech Report 1998 part 1
There are four lobes in the aquifer – each unique and for management purposes can be considered separate units. Shallow Cardinal Lake and adjacent wetlands are considered part of the aquifer system.
The aquifer is an excellent and reliable source of groundwater. The average capacity of the aquifer is 1,342 gallons of water per hour per square mile of aquifer (32,208 gallons per day, per square mile). As the aquifer is approximately 182 square miles, the potential yield is 5.8 million gallons of water per day.
The Earth Sciences Division of PFRA, Regina, developed the report commencing in September 1996, with a Final report issued in April, 1998.
In 1999 the six municipalities agreed to an annual contribution of fifty cents per capita for their residents located within the Aquifer nodes to fund the operation of the committee. This raised about $3,400 and with financial assistance from PFRA, Alberta Agriculture and Alberta Environment, 200 copies of the report were published. At this time in 2000, the Committee was incorporated as a non-profit Society to provide legal identity with the six municipalities each having one elected official as a voting member, secretarial support to be provided by the Chairman’s municipality.
Technical support continues from Alberta Agriculture, Alberta Environment and from municipal staff.