Fanny Bay Community Centre
7793 Island Highway South, Vancouver Island
2-4 pm, doors open at 1:30 pm
The Beaufort Watershed Stewards (BWS) is pleased to present a town hall to discuss “Local aquifers: What Our Data Reveal.” On Vancouver Island, aquifers provide over 70% of drinking water. As with much of BC, our local aquifers are poorly characterized due to their small size, complex geology, and limited funding for study. This leaves many communities without essential information about their only water source. Our hope is that this town hall will give a ‘deeper’ understanding of local groundwater basics.
There will be four guest speakers. Mike Wei, a retired Physical Hydrologist. With 40 years’ work on groundwater management in BC, Mike will use a physical model to demonstrate aquifer function and explain what variables affect water levels within aquifers.
Mark Lake, retired Geophysicist, is responsible for Beaufort Watershed Stewards’ Aquifer Mapping Program. He will present a summary of the group’s findings to date.
Kate MacMillan is a current Honours student at the University of Victoria, School of Earth & Ocean Sciences. In September 2025 she collected data from 40 wells in Fanny Bay, all of which are associated with Aquifer 419. Under Mike Wei’s supervision, she used these data points to estimate the extractable groundwater limits of the aquifer and the risk of stream flow depletion from well pumping. She will be presenting the results of that project.
Mike Mesford, who is responsible for our Ground Water and Surface Water programs, will discuss the cumulative implications of the presentations, and what the next steps are for Beaufort Watershed Stewards.
For more information visit us at: www.beaufortwater.org.
Because Water is Critical
