Latest Groundwater Monitoring Results
December 5, 2024 We are so encouraged to share the results for our first 20 months of groundwater monitoring. .
The Beaufort Watershed Steward's monitoring equipment sits at the bottom of our well and records the water level every 15 minutes. The chart to your right was prepared from those readings (96 data points per day). As expected, water levels drop during the summer months and rise again in the fall and winter
Due to technical (monitoring equipment), we are missing data for December 2023 and June 2024. Although our well levels remain strong over the summer months, it is our intent to not bottle during July and August. .
This is a very good well. It is a dug (not drilled) well, 3 feet in diameter and almost 15 feet deep. The walls are stacked concrete rings that rest on a gravel bed. When locating the well, coop founding member Ken Giles had the good sense to invite a Bowser water-witcher to find the best location. This is why, I am sure, it is so productive and recovers so quickly.
Active Groundwater Monitoring
Monday July 17, 2023. In March 2023, Diamond Springs invited Beaufort Water Stewards - as part of their groundwater monitoring activities - to install a groundwater monitoring system in Diamond Spring’s well. The monitoring equipment was installed April 9th. This system, which records water height every 15 minutes, provides monthly data to both BWS and our Coop to monitor the health of our groundwater resource.
Based on data collected in April, May and June, water levels in our well over the past 3 months have dropped by approximately 2 feet. According to manual measurements taken over the past 20 years, a 2 foot drop during the summer months is to be expected for this well, but we must remember this is only July and we are in a drought.
As we collect data over time, we will be able to develop informed “indicators” (red, yellow, green) that tell us when to slow down and when to stop bottling. Lacking sufficient data this year and wanting to err on the side of caution, we bottled only a small amount in the first half of July to provide water to our long-time Denman Island customers, then set our bottling indicator to RED for the rest of the summer. We will not resume bottling until mid-September or later when conditions improve.
Because groundwater levels are of interest to all of us, we will continue to share the groundwater graph on our webpage each month. It is our understanding that BWS will share this data with the CVRD as part of a groundwater health monitoring program.
Shaw Spotlight on Diamond Springs Water Bottling Cooperative
Monday, May 8, 2023. The capitalist model is wholly inappropriate for resource extraction. Goods of the commons demand a much safer path. Diamond Springs Water Bottling Coop offers government regulators a small but powerful model of what "doing it right" looks like.
Watch this 5 minute video to learn more.