Development of a Tool to Identify Groundwater Recharge Areas Vulnerable to Sodium Chloride Contamination in Well Head Protection Areas

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In Canada, frequent application of rock salt for managing winter driving conditions and the need to implement stormwater management (SWM) practices in urban environment result in large volumes of sodium chloride in surface and ground water. High concentrations of sodium chloride are affecting the potability of water and sustainability of ecosystems. Therefore, a joint venture between University of Guelph and Urban Watershed Group Ltd. will develop an integrated modelling framework involving a widely used surface water model (SWAT) and ground water model (MODFLOW) in Open Modelling Interface (OpenMI) which can simulate the transport mechanisms of sodium chloride through soil profile into ground water aquifer and also through overland into streams. The Laurel Creek sub-watershed upstream of Silver Lake within the City of Waterloo was selected as one of the pilot study areas. The integrated model will be calibrated and validated using monitoring data which will be collected in both surface and groundwater sampling campaigns. Once calibrated and validated, scenarios will be developed to evaluate various stormwater management (SWM) practices and their impact on groundwater quality as well as impacts on ecosystems. Finally, a genetic algorithm (GA) will be integrated with the surface water-groundwater model to optimize the selection of best SWM practices and to identify groundwater recharge areas vulnerable to sodium chloride contamination in well head protection areas of the Laurel Creek sub-watershed.