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.e1o~r ~ts~-w~a n,~N~i+~r.~e <br />r ~. a~ , ~ c..da;.eY <br />2001 USGS report: Investigation of <br />Ground-Water Availability and Quality <br />in Orange County, North Carolina. <br />Introduction <br />In May 2005, the adopted Water Resources Initiative proposed the creation of a groundwa- <br />terobservation well network to continue the work of the previous decade of groundwater re- <br />search in Orange County, and provide a network for the collection of information on local <br />groundwater quality and quantity. <br />The goals of the network involve the utilization of a combination of bedrock and regolith <br />wells spread across the nine main types of generalized bedrock geology present in Orange <br />County. Regolith wells, completed in the unconsolidated material present above bedrock in <br />the subsurface, are designed to monitor natural stresses on the quantity of groundwater <br />available in storage which are caused by variations in climatic conditions. Bedrock wells are <br />utilized to monitor changes in groundwater levels in the bedrock across the county. Taken <br />together, the network, now called Orange Well Net, is designed to collect information con- <br />cerning the amount of groundwater available locally in Orange County. <br />Project Progress <br />Early in the project, a decision was made to fiocus on the identification and utilization of ex- <br />isting bedrock wells instead of incurring the expense of installing new wells. Down hole <br />video examination of several out-of--use supply wells was completed by County staff as a <br />means of inexpensively determining the suitability of the well construction. Following a fairly <br />extensive search and evaluation process, six bedrock water supply wells were determined <br />to be suitable to use as relatively inexpensive observation wells. Three of the six wells are <br />located on County-owned property. Memoranda of Agreement were completed with outside <br />entities covering the long-term use of three wells located on private property. Staff secured <br />the well heads at each of the six bedrock wells and the required downhole instrumentation, <br />pressure transducers and data loggers, were subsequently deployed in each of the six <br />wells. <br />Groundwater level data collection began at each of the six bedrock wells in late March <br />2010. Table 1 lists the well construction details for the six bedrock wells now included in <br />Orange Well Net. Figure 1 illustrates the locations of these six wells. <br />2 <br />