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•Water Resources Initiative (Adopted by BOCC in 2005) identified "Critical Areas to Address", <br /> including: <br /> —Impact of drought on groundwater and surface water availability. <br /> —Impact of groundwater base flow on water supplies and aquatic life. <br /> —Further research on elevated radon findings. <br /> III. Goals of the Observation Well Network <br /> •Consistent with items identified by the Water Resources Project (2001) and the Water <br /> Resources Initiative adopted by the BOCC in 2005, goals are: <br /> 1. Groundwater Quantity-"early warning system" <br /> 2. Delineation of groundwater base flow. <br /> 3. Research groundwater quality, including: <br /> •Radon and arsenic in groundwater. <br /> IV. Current Situation <br /> •Only two observation wells exist in the County: <br /> •NC-126 USGS regolith (shallow) well on UNC-CH campus- Needs to be replaced. <br /> •NCDENR-DWR Caldwell bedrock (deeper) well off Guess Road. <br /> •Guilford County has an observation well network and Wake County is developing one. <br /> V. Orange County Geology <br /> •Cunningham and Daniel (2001) described the groundwater system in Orange County as a <br /> "regolith-fractured crystalline rock aquifer system". <br /> A. Regolith <br /> Unconsolidated material which overlies fractured crystalline bedrock- includes soil, <br /> weathered rock, etc. <br /> Principal components of the groundwater <br /> system in the Piedmont Province of North Carolina <br /> (from Harned and Daniel, 1992) <br /> B. Bedrock <br /> Groundwater in bedrock limited by the number and characteristics of the fractures <br /> present. <br /> Bottom Line: Majority of groundwater storage occurs in the regolith, but water supply <br /> wells utilize water located in bedrock fractures ("pipelines"). <br /> The reservoir pipeline conceptual model <br /> of the Piedmont groundwater system <br /> (modified from Heath, 1984) <br />