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, i <br /> North Carolina Division of Water Quality <br /> drilling rig installing regolith groundwater <br /> observation well in southern Orange <br /> County during 2011. <br /> Introduction <br /> In May 2005, the adopted Water Resources Initiative proposed the creation of a groundwa- <br /> ter observation well network in Orange County to continue the work of the previous decade <br /> of groundwater research in the county, and provide a network for the collection of infor- <br /> mation on local groundwater quality and quantity. <br /> Groundwater in the Piedmont of North Carolina can be found within the fractured bedrock <br /> that underlies this region as well in the overlying unconsolidated material, which is known as <br /> regolith. Older hand dug and bored wells accessed the groundwater present in the near- <br /> surface regolith, which because of the shallow depth of this water often contained bacteria <br /> and other contaminants originating from the ground surface. More recent water wells are <br /> drilled into the deeper fractured bedrock aquifer until an adequate quantity of groundwater is <br /> found. This groundwater is located only within the fractures present in the bedrock. Hydro- <br /> geologists often refer to regolith groundwater as water that is in storage since it is this water <br /> that effectively recharges the deeper fractured bedrock aquifer that is tapped by water sup- <br /> ply wells. <br /> The goals of the groundwater observation well network involve the utilization of a combina- <br /> tion of bedrock and regolith wells spread across the nine main types of generalized bedrock <br /> geology present in Orange County. Regolith wells, completed in the near-surface unconsoli- <br /> dated material that is present above bedrock, are designed to monitor natural stresses on <br /> the quantity of groundwater available in storage that are caused by variations in climatic <br /> conditions. Bedrock wells are utilized to monitor changes in groundwater levels in the bed- <br /> rock across the county. Taken together, the Orange Well Net (OWN) is designed to collect <br /> information concerning the amount of groundwater available locally in Orange County. <br /> Project Progress <br /> Early in the project, a decision was made to identify and utilize existing bedrock wells in- <br /> stead of incurring the expense of installing new wells. Six out-of-use bedrock wells were <br /> secured for use in the OWN and groundwater level data collection began in late March <br /> 2010. <br /> 1 <br />