SPRING WATER CHARACTERISTICS; ANNE AND SANDY CROSS CONSERVATION AREA; CALGARY, ALBERTA

Fresh water is critical for society. In southern Alberta, rapid growth in water demand, along with the regulatory decision to stop issuing licenses for surface-water, has lead to increased demand for groundwater. Calgary’s population recently surpassed a million and continues to rapidly expand placing further strains on the local fresh water supply. It is critical to improve our understanding of both the local surface and ground water. The Anne and Sandy Cross Conservation Area (ASCCA), southwest of Calgary, has 22 natural springs which form some of the headwaters for the Bow River Watershed, an important source of surface-water for the City of Calgary and her surrounding communities. While it is the Tertiary Paskapoo sandstones that form most of the aquifers in southern Alberta, it is the overlying WIsconsinan glacial till that has a strong influence on groundwater geochemistry. Here it is predicted that these spring water chemistries should be lower in total dissolved sulphates (TDS) and higher in Ca-HCO₃ reflecting the overlying Cordilleran glacial till that contains mostly Paleozoic carbonates and Cambrian quartzites. Groundwater east of Calgary typically contains higher TDS due to oxidized pyrite from the overlying Laurentian glacial tills composed primarily of igneous and metamorphic clasts from the Hudson Bay region of the Canadian Shield (Grasby et al 2010).

Beavers have been reintroduced onto the ASCCA to create wetlands, which are important for stabilizing quantity and quality of fresh water. A drone is currently being used to monitor the development of these wetlands. Reintroducing wetlands in the Bow River headwater region may be beneficial for lessening the impact of future floods such as the devastating 2013 floods across southern Alberta.