Environmental Trends 2007

Fresh Water

Observation Wells With Declining Water Levels Mainly Due to Human Activity

Human activities that can cause a local decline in ground water levels include local pumping for industry, agriculture and municipal or private drinking water.

In recent years, an increased percentage of observation wells showed declining water levels due to human activities.

Source: Ministry of Environment, 2007.

• For the period 2000 to 2005, 35 per cent of the wells showed a declining trend in water levels that did not appear to be related to natural variations in precipitation.

• This increase over previous years may be a result of increased monitoring in the most heavily developed and vulnerable aquifers. Most observation wells are established close to these areas because the main purpose of the observation well network is to monitor the effects of human activity.

See: Provincial observation well network.

For detailed information, including graph data, see In-Depth Report [pdf].

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