Join us for a Groundwater Workshop at Wings 2018

What is groundwater and why do we monitor it?

Discover why groundwater monitoring is vital to community planning in the face of climate change in this Wings Over the Rockies workshop.

Living Lakes Canada’s Raegan Mallinson and Invermere area volunteer Buzz Harmsworth collecting groundwater data for the Columbia Basin Groundwater Monitoring Program. Photo by Heather Leschied

Groundwater, one of our most important yet least known natural resources, will be explored during an illuminating workshop at this year’s Wings Over the Rockies festival.

According to the 2017 Columbia Basin Trust report Water Monitoring and Climate Change in the Upper Columbia Basin: A Summary of Current Status and Opportunities by Dr. Martin Carver, the effects of climate change on groundwater resources in the Columbia Basin remains unclear due a lack of mapping, monitoring, and analysis.

On May 11 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Pynelogs Cultural Centre in Invermere, join Living Lakes Canada and Canadian geophysicist/engineer Paul Bauman for a discussion on the interconnectedness of groundwater within our global system.

During the workshop, learn about aquifers in the Columbia Basin, the Columbia Basin Groundwater Monitoring Program (the first citizen science groundwater monitoring program in B.C.), other water monitoring initiatives, and how groundwater relates to the new Water Sustainability Act.

This is also an opportunity to tell us about your water source and any related concerns to help Living Lakes Canada develop and expand the Columbia Basin Groundwater Monitoring Program.

“Given climate change, we expect groundwater to become an even more important resource, both as source water for humans and as a contributor to base river flows in times of drought,” says Living Lakes Canada Groundwater Monitoring Program Manager Carol Luttmer.

The workshop will not only pinpoint groundwater investigations taking place here in the Columbia Basin, but also in far-flung Northern Uganda where Paul Bauman, a Living Lakes Canada advisor, was part of a team to train the local people how to repair and maintain their water systems after two decades of civil war.

The cost of the workshop is just $15.

To register for “Connections Down Under – Groundwater in the Columbia Basin & Beyond with Paul Bauman & Carol Luttmer”, visit https://www.wingsovertherockies.org/events/event-details/connections-down-under—groundwater-in-the-columbia-basin-_-beyond-with-paul-bauman,-heather-leschied-_-carol-luttmer/663 and select “Book Now”.

If you would like more information or to discuss groundwater monitoring in your community, contact Carol directly at carol@livinglakescanada.ca.

A “hands-on” education project to train Ugandan students to look for water in the most desperate of the Acholi villages in Gulu district, as well as to train Acholi students, led by Calgary, AB geophysicist Paul Bauman, supported by five geophysicist volunteers from Alberta, The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG,) Geoscientists Without Borders (GWB) Foundation, IsraAID. Paul Bauman