Cortes Island’s First Aquifer Health Study

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -Cortes Island’s aquifer health study has been released and in this morning’s interviews we are speaking with Sylvia Barroso, of GW Solutions, the Senior Hydrologist who participated in this project, Sadhu Johnston, Executive Director of the Cortes Island Housing Society and Mark Vonesch, Regional Director of Cortes Island.  First, there are two key questions at the top of many people’s minds. Is there enough water in Cortes Island’s aquifers to support further development? And why were some of the island’s shallow wells not recharging during the recent drought?  Barroso’s answers to both questions were complex. Aside from her reference to climate change and the fact conditions are going to get worse, you’ll have to wait for her full answer to the question about our shallow wells. However one of her statements about the state of Cortes Island’s aquifers is very illuminating:  “Our study showed that in general Cortes has abundant water sources and that at the current usage levels, we have not found that there's overuse. When we look at it from a water management approach, we did not find that any of the water management areas had greater than 5% of the available water being used. That suggests that there is room for growth, and it gives us an opportunity to strategically develop water sources and develop those in protected areas.”  Cortes Currents: The issue is much more complex and there are steps we should take to ensure the health of Cortes Island’s water supply, but for that you have to listen to the long version.