77-5 Supporting the inclusion of groundwater monitoring and reporting in Canadian federal policy

Session: Groundwater and Sustainability: Integrating Science, Technology, and Policy

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The International Association of Hydrogeologists - Canadian National Chapter (IAH-CNC) is a volunteer-led, scientific organization dedicated to promoting the study and protection of groundwater resources in Canada. The Groundwater Inclusion Committee was formed by IAH-CNC volunteers to advocate for groundwater to strengthen freshwater management in Canada. Committee members have since engaged with ~50 groundwater stakeholders, including hydrogeologists from across Canada and employees from the new Canada Water Agency.

In 2024, IAH-CNC submitted a brief prepared by The Groundwater Inclusion Committee to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development: Study on Freshwater. This brief emphasized the need for federal policy and high profile communications to reflect the importance of groundwater in Canada; 30% of Canadians are supplied by groundwater, and groundwater is the largest source of liquid freshwater in Canada. Yet, groundwater is not monitored nationwide at the federal level despite water monitoring being mandated in the existing Water Act. Monitoring and reporting is also needed to address transboundary issues and industry use of groundwater. This brief made five recommendations to the federal government: 1) clarify terminology in communications to include groundwater, 2) establish a national groundwater monitoring network, 3) report on groundwater quality and quantity trends, 4) include groundwater experts in freshwater management decisions, and 5) improve education on groundwater. 

Building on this recent momentum, we aim to support two of the five recommendations: to establish a national groundwater monitoring network, and to report on the groundwater monitoring results. Firstly, we compared the U.S. Geological Survey groundwater monitoring framework to existing monitoring networks in Canada within provincial and territorial jurisdictions. Secondly, we developed an R-based script to automate the analysis of groundwater hydrographs for seasonal trends and average annual patterns. As an illustrative example, the script was applied to groundwater levels collected by the Nova Scotia provincial monitoring network and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality observation well network to demonstrate how monitoring networks can be used to investigate groundwater recharge drivers, aquifer properties, and long-term trends. Variability in the geology and well depths in the existing network made spatial trends difficult to identify. Additionally, we found that winter precipitation resulted in more efficient recharge. We suggest increasing well coverage to assist in future analyses.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-9050

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