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Declining quality of water detected in reservoirs below Fraser Valley, expert says |
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How much water is beneath our feet?
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| Source: State of the Environment Report for B.C., 1993, published by the federal and provincial environment departments. |
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Is B.C.'s groundwater contaminated? |
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exceed Canadian drinking water guidelines at specific sites within 17 of
the 192 aquifers studied by the municipal, provincial and regional
governments during the 1990s.
Ten of these problem aquifers are in the Fraser Valley, where the public health guidelines for one or more water contaminant were exceeded at one or more wells. Nitrate levels exceed guidelines in nine of the 17 aquifers, likely because of agricultural fertilizer, manure and/or septic fields. Most of the information about aquifers is collected in areas with large populations. Little is known about groundwater quality outside these areas. Source: Groundwater in B.C., environment, lands and parks ministry, 1997. |