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Water Well Management For Well Owners

Media Release

For Immediate Release

Water Well Workshop Coming to Wheatland County
Informative Working Well program helps residents protect their drinking water.

Wheatland County, April 19th, 2023 – Did you know a poorly maintained water well can put your water supply at risk? As a landowner, you’re responsible for looking after the water wells on your property. If you are one of the 450,000 Albertans who use their water well for household purposes, the key to ensuring your water is safe and secure is understanding how groundwater works, learning about your well and knowing how to properly maintain it.

Proper water well siting, construction, maintenance and plugging will help protect your well from biofouling and contamination, save you costly repairs, and ensure your well water yields are sustained over many years.

Learn what you can do to protect your well at the free, water well management workshop hosted by Wheatland County and presented by the Working Well Program, with technical expertise from Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, Alberta Environment and Protected Areas, Alberta Health Services and licensed water well drillers on April 19th, 2023. This information-packed workshop is designed to help water well owners better understand, manage and maintain their wells.

Sign up for our free water well management workshop today. Pre-register at https://bit.ly/3Jl71Z0

For more information please contact:

Sarah Schumacher                                                                              Kristina Dembinski
Wheatland County                                                                                 Working Well Program Coordinator
Phone: 403-333-6943                                                                            workingwellprogram@gmail.com
Email: agandenv@wheatlandcounty.ca

Backgrounder

A misunderstood resource
Despite its importance, many Albertans give little thought to groundwater and where it comes from. It is a common belief that groundwater comes from fast flowing underground rivers and lakes. This is not true. Groundwater is the water that fills the cracks and spaces between soil particles, sand grains and rock. An aquifer is simply a water-bearing zone in the ground where there are interconnected cracks and spaces (e.g., sand, gravel or fractured shale) that allow groundwater to move freely.

It is also a little-known fact that groundwater and surface water are connected. In some areas groundwater can be a source of recharge for streams, lakes and dugouts. In other areas water from rivers, lakes, snowmelt and rain seeps into the ground, where it trickles downward until it reaches the water table. The water table is the point at which the ground is completely saturated with water. Below the water table, the spaces between every grain of soil and rock are completely filled with water.

Water, the great ‘dissolver’
Water is the world’s greatest solvent: it tries to dissolve everything it comes in contact with. This means manure, pesticides and fertilizers over-applied to lawns and fields can be carried by rain or snowmelt seeping down through the soil to the water table. Sewage from poorly maintained septic systems or spilled and improperly disposed-of chemicals can similarly seep into groundwater. 

If you have highly permeable soils on your land, such as sand or gravel, your groundwater could be at higher risk, because these soils are poor filters. Having abandoned or poorly constructed or infrequently maintained wells on your property is even more risky because such structures could be draining surface water and everything it carries directly into your aquifer. The water well management workshop offers all the information you need to protect and maintain your well.

15 years of sharing water well maintenance information
For 15 years, the Working Well program partners have been bringing water well management workshops and information resources to Albertans. Since its launch in 2008, Working Well has become a very successful and in-demand program for rural Albertans, providing them with the information and resources they need to manage their water wells and protect Alberta’s groundwater resources. Over the years, the Working Well program has delivered 380 workshops to over 10,000 people in more than 200 communities across Alberta.

The success of this program is due to the hard work and dedication of a collaborative team of committed employees from Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, Alberta Environment and Protected Areas, Alberta Health Services, the Alberta Water Well Drilling Association and licensed water well contractors, as well as the support of rural municipalities and other organizations from across the province.

Learn more at workingwell.alberta.ca

General Questions?
Alberta Environment and Protected Areas
Information Centre
Phone: 310-3773 toll free

Technical Questions?
Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation
Ag-Info Centre
Phone: 310–FARM (3276) toll free

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