CHARACTERIZATION OF VERMONT'S GROUNDWATER RESOURCES

Recent issues such as drought and groundwater contamination in Vermont highlight the need to understand Vermont’s potential water supply, groundwater recharge and withdrawals, and water budgets for the purposes of locating future and replacement water supplies. The State’s well completion database contains well drillers’ reports from 1965 to present and hosts information which can be applied to water use and resources. The database of 115,000+ wells includes 64 fields such as location, depth, static water level, and yield. In addition, the records include subsurface information such as materials and thicknesses. These data are used by consultants, university and government researchers, and homeowners. However, less than 15% of the wells have accurate locations, which limits the utility of the database. The Vermont Geological Survey developed a methodology and began to update and correct well locations nearly 15 years ago; the success rate was ~30% at best. The current study, funded through a USGS Water Use Research and Development grant, will work to update well locations, correct data errors, and assign HUC codes, aquifer type, and USGS water use codes to each well. By integrating newly available parcel, E911, and other spatial data in GIS we successfully improved the geographic location of ~50% of the wells in Lamoille and Addison counties. Accurate locations improve our ability to understand groundwater recharge in Vermont, assess water use by HUC code, and calculate water budgets in small watersheds. This enhanced dataset combined with visualization tools and models for the public will specifically highlight the 3D properties of the subsurface and communicate groundwater recharge information for town and regional planning purposes.