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<PS^/ ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS NIAGARA RIVER SHOREWELLS MARCH 1994 ® Ministryof Ontario Environment andEnergy ISBN0-7778-2592-9 ENVIRONMENTALINVESTIGATION NIAGARARIVERSHOREWELLS MARCH 1994 Cettepublicationtechnique n'estdisponiblequ'enanglais. Copyright: Queen'sPrinterforOntario, 1994 Thispublicationmaybereproducedfornon-commercialpurposes withappropriateattribution. PIBS2871 ENVIRONMENTALINVESTIGATION NIAGARARIVERSHOREWELLS Reportpreparedby: ArcturusEnvironmentalLimited 7900CanadianDrive NiagaraFalls, ON L2E6S5 DISCLAIMER The content and conclusions ofthis report do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the OntarioMinistryofEnvironmentandEnergy. The dataaspresented areregarded asvalidand canbe usedinadditionalassessments. Mention of trade names or commercial products doesnotconstituteendorsementorrecommendation foruse. NiagaraRiverShorewells-FFNALREPORT INTRODUCTION 1.0 BACKGROUND 1.1 As part ofthe Remedial Action Plan (RAP) investigations ontheNiagara River, the Ontario Ministry ofthe Environment andEnergy(MOEE) issuedacontracttoinvestigate theextentoftheuseofshorewells alongthe Niagara RiverandChippawaCreek. This investigation was initiated inresponse toadatagapidentifiedbythePublicAdvisory Committee (PAC) duringthepreparation ofStageIoftheNiagaraRiverRemedial ActionPlan. WhilewritingtheStageIreport onenvironmental conditionsandproblemdefmition,itwasidentifiedbythePACthatsomeusersoftheNiagara Riverweremissed. Essentially,anunknownnumberofpeoplealongtheNiagaraRiverwerethoughttotaketheirwaterdu-ectlyfrom theNiagara Riverviatheuseofshallow wellsalongtheriverbankorinthewaters oftheriver(shorewells). Theextentoftreatment, andtheusestowhichthewaterwerebeingput,werenotknown. Thewaterqualitywas expectedtomeetOntarioDrinkingWaterObjectives;however,datawerenotavailabletosupportthisexpectation. On November 20, 1992 Arcturus Environmental Limited (Arcturus) was contracted by the Ministry ofthe Enviroiunent and Energy (MOEE), to locate and conduct a survey ofshorewell use. The field work was conducted duringJanuary andFebruary of1993. 1.1.1 STATEMENT OFWORK Astheprojectprogressedandmoreinformationbecameavailable, anumberofchangestothestatementofwork weremade. Thefinalrevisedstatement ofworkislistedbelow: thenumberofshorewells andshorewell userswouldbedetermined aquestionnaire surveywouldbeconducted onallshorewell usersontheNiagara RiverParkway seventy fivebacteriological samples wouldbetaken from "asconsumed" sources twentygeneral chemistry samples wouldbeobtained fromtreated water twentygeneral chemistrysamples wouldbeobtained fromtapshavinguntreatedwatertapslocatedon thepressure sideofthepumpingsystem. 1.2 OBJECTIVES Theobjectives ofthisstudywereto: determine thelocationofeach activeshorewell alongtheNiagara RiverandChippawaCreek obtaininformation fromthepeoplewhousetheshorewells determine theusesofthewaterobtainedfromtheshorewells provideanindicationastotheextentofanywaterqualityconcerns associated withtheshorewells obtain water samples from shorewell sources and submit samples for laboratory analysis inorderto obtain quantitativeresultsofthewaterqualityobtained fromtheshorewells. ARCTURUSENVIRONMENTALLIMITED MinistryoftheEnvironmentandEnergy ...1 FINALREPORT-NiagaraRiverShorewells 1.3 SITE LOCATION TheNiagara River is fedfrom Lake Erie andflowsgenerally northtowards Lake Ontario. The studyarea is dividedintothreesections, whichare: Section A: the length ofthe Niagara River between the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and Main Street in Chippawa Section B: both sides ofChippawa Creek from the lighthouse inKing's Bridge Park, Chippawa tothe Queenston-Chippawa HydroElectric PowerCanal(HEPC) Section C: theportionoftheNiagaraRiverbetweenthenewQueenston waterpollutioncontrolplantand NavyHallatFortGeorge inNiagara-On-The-Lake. Figure 1 isamapoftheNiagara Riverwatershed showingtheboundaries ofthestudyarea. Figures2,3,and 4showgreaterdetailsofSections A,B,andC,respectively. 2... MinistryoftheEnvironmentandEnergy ARCTURUSENVIRONMENTAL LIMITED