Canadian researchers are studying groundwater in the Great Lakes basin to determine if the water supply will meet the future needs of humans and wildlife. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly has this report:
Transcript
Canadian researchers are studying groundwater in the Great Lakes basin to determine if the water supply will meet the future needs of humans and wildlife. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:
An increasing population and a drier climate have led to concerns about Ontario’s groundwater supply, but up until now, no one has known just how much groundwater there is…or where it’s located. Researchers from Ontario and the Canadian government
say they plan to create a map of the basin’s resources. Andrew Piggott is the lead scientist for Environment Canada. He says they’ll look at how well different soils absorb water. And how geology determines where the groundwater collects.
“It really is a step towards better understanding these processes and getting a sense of the kind of change we might see as well in the future.”
The researchers are also concerned about wildlife. If a river’s groundwater supply dries up, it may not be able to support animals like brook trout. The study’s authors hope their findings will help humans plan for such change. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly.