Background

In February 2000, the Division of Water Resources (DWR) met with the Guilford County Environmental Health Division to offer assistance in setting up the county's water resources monitoring well network. The county desired a local well network to determine how climate and land use changes impact its ground water supply.

DWR already monitored a well in its statewide network near Gibsonville. This well (G50W2) has a period of record dating back to 1967. Guilford County desired to add approximately 10 additional well sites to their network, providing coverage over the entire county.

DWR agreed to monitor two additional sites for the county, while they installed the necessary monitoring wells at each site. We also assisted in site selection for its early monitoring wells, recommending well construction specifications, and assisting in selection of automatic water level recorders for their network.

The county installed the first two monitoring wells at sites with existing out-of-service supply wells that were initially used as monitoring wells. DWR assisted in supervision of the well installations and monitored both sites until early 2005. At that time, the county informed us that they no longer required our assistance in their well network program. They now handle all data collection, interpretation, and presentation from the network. We still monitor well G50W2 near Gibsonville for the statewide ground water resources monitoring network.

In March 2005, DWR and the county met to discuss interpretations of the data that have been collected by both agencies from the local network. The data indicate that, barring influence from nearby pumping, ground water levels in the county's monitoring wells are primarily a function of natural controls on recharge. Neither agency has identified trends in the water level data from the local network that indicate that urbanization and other land use changes are measurably impacting the recharge of ground water in Guilford County. This could change in the future, as Guilford County's population continues to grow. Continued monitoring of this well network is vital to identifying these trends in their early stages so that proper decisions can be made to minimize any negative impacts to the county's ground water supply.

The Guilford County monitoring well program is well on its way to success. The county has invested the necessary resources to ensuring that monitoring will continue in the future. They are also currently developing a website to distribute the ground water data from the network. For more information on Guilford County's ground water monitoring network, please contact Gene Mao with the Guilford County Division of Environmental Health at GMAO@co.guilford.nc.us. You may view the Guilford County Division of Environmental Health website here.

	Eric Ireland with the Guilford County Division of Environmental Health, working with a Sutron 8400A water level recorder at the Yow well site (I54K). Photo taken in 2000.
	D&Y Well Drilling installing a monitoring well at the Triad Park well site (G56L) with an air rotary drilling rig. This is the second well at the Triad Park site. The first well monitored there was an out-of-service domestic supply well owned by the park. Note the white rock powder coming from the well as the bit drills through the bedrock at the site.
	The monitoring wells at the Triad Park well site. The well in the foreground is the most recently installed monitoring well. The domestic supply well that was formerly monitored at the site is located just in front of the mobile home in the background. At Guilford County's request, DWR stopped monitoring these wells in early 2005. The County now monitors the well in the foreground only.
	Guilford County's monitoring well at the County's radio tower near Summerfield.