Terrance W. Hennigar

Large fresh water underground reservoirs are found in east-central Colchester County, Nova Scotia in surficial deposits of sand and gravel and bedrock deposits of Triassic age. These underlie the Town of Truro and adjacent areas to the north and east. It appears that individual screened wells with capacities up to several hundred gallons per minute can be developed at many localities in both the surficial and bedrock deposits.

It was found that the sanitary quality of the Salmon River water deteriorated rapidly downstream from Murray whereas the chemical quality did not vary significantly. Groundwater varied in chemical quality with the geology, but excellent quality water (both bacteriological and chemical) can be obtained from bedrock and surficial aquifers in the study area.

A correlation of the factors (elevation and distance) assumed to be affecting precipitation in the area indicated that neither factor showed a significant linear relationship with precipitation. Data from the precipitation guage network (density 1 guage per 10 square miles) indicated coefficients of variation ranging from 9 to 24.

Estimates of the hydrologic budgets for the Salmon River and Fraser Brook watersheds were made for the water year 1966-67. Both estimates revealed that about 70 per cent of the precipitation appears as stream runoff, 23 per cent of this as base flow. The degree of utilization of groundwater in the area was determined, by comparing the base flow (70,555 acre-ft.) with the total volume of groundwater utilized (2,835 acre-ft.) and found to be about 4 per cent. Also included in the study is information on water utilization and aquifer hydraulic characteristics.

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