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This report presents an assessment of the hydrostratigraphy of the northern portion of the Okanagan Basin, extending from Vernon, northwest to Salmon Arm, and north to Mara Lake. Groundwater is used for domestic, agricultural, and municipal water supply in the north Okanagan, and demand is expected to rise. This assessment seeks to improve the understanding of the geologic history and the hydrogeology of the aquifers which contain most of the accessible groundwater in the area.
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Author: Martin Stewart, Remi Allard, Ministry Contributors: Dave Thomson, Christine Bieber and Skye Thomson
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Date Published: Jul 2017
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Report ID: 54472
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Audience: Government and Public
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This report presents the results of a focused assessment of the hydrostratigraphy of the northern portion of the Okanagan Basin, extending from Vernon, northwest to Salmon Arm, and north to Mara Lake. Groundwater is significantly used for domestic, agricultural, and municipal water supply in the north Okanagan, and demand is expected to rise. Groundwater is the only available source to meet that growth in demand. This assessment seeks to improve the understanding of the geologic history and the physical hydrogeology of the aquifers which contain most of the accessible groundwater in the region.
Surficial geology of the Okanagan Basin has been the focus of numerous studies and several scientific articles. In this area, uncertainty still exists regarding the Quaternary stratigraphy and the relationship with aquifers. The main objective of this study was to compare the historical aquifer mapping by the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy (ENV) with geological units derived by other studies to establish updated aquifer boundaries within the study area. This was accomplished through the development of a 3-dimensional (3-D) overburden geological model (using LeapfrogTM software) to identify hydrostratigraphic units that in turn were used to establish the updated aquifers. The model was used to re-characterize the reconciled aquifers using the B.C. Aquifer Classification system, prepare a well summary spreadsheet correlating all wells to the reconciled aquifers, and to identify data gaps.
The scale and scope of this assessment were sufficient for delineating broad hydrostratigraphic trends. The aquifer assemblages have been refined in many of the valleys where the scale of the aquifer extent versus aquifer thickness, and quantity of data were sufficient. Despite having an apparently complex geologic history, the Quaternary geology of the North Okanagan is remarkably consistent within valleys of similar size and geometry. Three basic valley types with characteristic hydrostratigraphy and aquifer geometry have been identified, including MAIN (Okanagan, Lower Salmon River), SECONDARY (O'Keefe, Hullcar and Tuhok) and TERTIARY (Ashton Creek, BX Creek, and lesser) valleys.
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Report Type
Subject
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Region - Okanagan |
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Water Information - Groundwater |
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Water Information - Hydrometric / Hydrology |
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