WEN groundwater partnership

Houston Thompson has been interning with the Watershed Education Network since Fall 2009. With WEN, he has been working with the large amount of data collected on streams and rivers over the years. Under the guidance of Tony Berthelote, University of Montana grad student, SKC faculty and WEN volunteer, Houston has picked up on the end of a long running monthly well monitoring project. The monitoring is associated with a larger study on the Milltown Dam removal through the Geosciences Department of the University of Montana. The monitoring started long before the dams removal to study the effects of the drawdown on groundwater. Last weekend, (March 19th and 20th) in addition to the monthly hand measurements, two dozen data loggers (ducers) were uploaded from about 50 wells focused between East Missoula and Turah. The ducers provide conditions in the wells in two hour increments, since the monitoring last November, and will continue to provide data until the project terminates. The results confirm the low water table as normal in the area for March, with a few signs of the beginning of spring melt. Recent chemical and bacterial lab tests on 20 samples had good results as well. Funding for this particular monitoring project runs out in June, but the experience and the quality data collected will last long after.