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Figure
1 (click to
enlarge)
The Fairchild Creek Watershed is a quaternary
sub-catchment with an area of about 400 km2(Lake
Erie Source
Protection Region 2008), located within the much larger
Grand River
Watershed of Southern Ontario (Figure
1),
which covers about 6,800 km2. Fairchild Creek
Watershed
contains portions of the Wellington, Waterloo,
Hamilton-Wentworth, and
Brant county regions. The total population of these
regions combined is
1,234,581 people (Statistics Canada 2001). The area is
primarily rural
farmland with the exceptions of the City of Brantford,
located in the
southern portion of the watershed. As the population in
the area relies
mainly on groundwater for drinking and other purposes it
is important
to protect it from non-point source pollution that often
accompanies
agricultural operations. The City of Brantford has a
municipal
residential drinking water system drawing an average of
38, 525 m3/day
from surface water sources (Lake Erie Region Source
Protection
Committee 2010). The water resources are currently being
assessed and
protection measures are being implemented under the
“Drinking Water
Source Protection Act for Clean Water” for the Lake Erie
Protection
Region (Lake Erie Source Protection Region 2008).
The watershed is at an average elevation of
225 meters
above sea level (masl) with rolling topography which
drains to the
Grand River southeast of Brantford (Figure 2).
The bedrock is mainly composed of limestone and dolostone
from the
Guelph and Salina Formations (Ministry of Environment
2011). The
majority of the soil texture in the watershed is comprised
of silty,
sandy, and regular loam (Figure 3)
with
high to moderately high infiltration rates. High
infiltration has
potential for increased risk of groundwater contamination,
while the
rest of the area has greater runoff making surface water
more
vulnerable. Depth to water table is at an average of 6 m
below the
surface for the entire watershed area (Figure 4)
making the groundwater easily accessible to those who have
a well,
however this also increases the chances of agricultural
contaminants
entering the aquifer. The area is composed of 64%
agricultural land, 30
% pasture and forest, and 5 % urban land with the
remaining land cover
being wetlands and water (Figure 5).
Within
the four counties mentioned there are roughly 5,825 farms
(McGee, 2007). In
Brant and Hamilton County, which cover the majority of
Fairchild Creek
watershed, there are 975 km2 of cropland and 29
km2
of seeded pasture. As the watershed is primarily
rural most of
the head waters pass through farmland picking up
contaminants such as
agrochemicals and animal waste. A survey completed by
Deloitte &
Touche (1990) on tillage and soil conservation measures,
stated that
roughly 50% take conservative measures in reducing the
number of plough
passes. This data is for the Hamilton and Brant
Counties which
occupy the greatest area of the Fairchild Creek Watershed.
There are
2032 wetlands at risk, which occupy 12% of the land within
the
Fairchild Creek Watershed. The sub-catchment also has
1,292 km (Figure 5) of rivers
running south where they
join the Grand River southeast of the City of Brantford.
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