Scott Gardner, a PhD student in Water Resources Engineering, is pictured here in the process of installing a drive point into the bank of a stream in Parkhill, Ontario. This drive point is forced down to a depth where it intercepts shallow groundwater through a screen on the end. The water from this drive point is pumped out each month and is sampled for agricultural nutrients (phosphorus and nitrate), as this location is in the center of an agriculture intensive watershed. These samples, combined with samples taken from the nearby stream and groundwater monitoring wells, will contribute to understanding and advancing processes for best management practices in agricultural land-use settings in attempt to limit the transport of these nutrients and maintain or improve the water quality in receiving surface water bodies.
