THE ROBESON COUNTY GROUNDWATER PROJECT: A PARTNERSHIP WITH THE COMMUNITY

The Black Creek Aquifer is a primary ground water resource for five different counties in Southeast North Carolina. The Department of Geology and Geography at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP) is teaming up with industry leaders and county and state administrators to analyze our local water resources so that we can sustainably manage this resource. The mission of the Robeson County Ground Water Project is to monitor the impacts of ground water use on the Black Creek Aquifer, specifically in Robeson County, so that water users can better understand how the water flows in the aquifer, how it is currently being used, and to plan for future use. Undergraduate interns are working with their faculty mentor to help site up to 15 monitoring wells across the county and on the UNCP campus. Through collection and analysis of measurements taken from these wells and the merging of other county, state, and national data we have been able to monitor the variations in ground water levels of the aquifer from the 1940s to present day. The data collected is being used to create a regional publicly accessible database that categorizes ground water data based on the well used to record it. Undergraduates create well construction and formation diagrams for each of the wells in the database by synthesizing all the data we have for each well, create monthly piezometric maps for the local region based on the measurements from the wells, and a report of these findings are reported to the county on a semi-annual basis. The monitoring of the ground water in the region and the database will hopefully act as a reference for water managers to determine how increased industrial and agricultural uses are impacting our local groundwater systems and to effectively manage the resource. The program has been a great way to help connect undergraduates with industry leaders and public administrators but also has been an opportunity to help our campus and community members to learn more about their local water resources.