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Tag Archives Aquifer

Spring runoff typically offers a great kick of moisture to get things started, but if things turn dry, where do you turn?
Columns, Crops

Les Henry: Water information in Western Canada is flowing nicely

Look to these sources for information on where to find water
 during dry spells

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The past few years, growing-season rain on many Canadian Prairie farms has been much less than needed for a good crop. From 2005 to 2014 high snowfall plus much above-average rainfall provided more than enough moisture for crop growth. The excess rain and snow filled the soil and raised the water table by as much […] Read more
The pretty little slough, circled in red, on August 31, 2006.
Columns, Crops

Les Henry: A pretty little slough, a picture story

Sloughs are affected by the underground as well as surface features

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Be patient. This piece does have a punch line and it does relate to farming — but it comes at the end. Carry on and read. No peeking! In 2007 I was involved in a hydrogeology study of a new subdivision in southeast Saskatoon. The real work was done by an engineering firm who hired […] Read more
This is the slough where the salt water changes shown in the table were measured. This photo was taken on July 29, 2013. The water level is now much lower.
Columns, Crops

Water monitoring: dull but necessary

Keeping track of all of the numbers is still necessary for decision making

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Long-term monitoring of agricultural and environmental conditions and practices has been an important function of government agencies. It has been my experience in recent years that a lot of important monitoring functions have been reduced in scope or discontinued. In this column, I’ll describe a few examples of good monitoring and show the importance of […] Read more
These old wooden elevators at Laura, Sask., had developed some peculiar angles by the late 1980s when I took this photo. The Tessier aquifer is underneath and flows from a relatively shallow depth. In 1946 the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool elevator in Laura drilled a 28-foot test hole that flowed, but no well is recorded.
Columns, Crops

How water comes out of the ground

Water comes to the surface in many different ways

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In my last column I looked at water entering the ground and the factors that control that flow. This time, I’ll look at water coming out of the ground and the clues it leaves about its origin. Contact springs A contact spring occurs when the contact zone between a very sandy soil and a finer […] Read more
Figure 1. A slough on nearly level clay soil on the University of Saskatchewan farm. This photo was taken on April 28, 2017.
Columns, Crops

Natural controls on internal drainage of sloughs

Whether or not your slough will drain quickly is a more complicated question than it appears

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Many farms in Western Canada are plenty wet, and the 1.25 inches of rain we got on May 7 set seeding back a few days. When a rain like that comes we hope for a hot, dry wind to “dry it up.” But, evaporation is a small party of the overall equation. Sloughs do not […] Read more

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