BACOG Water Resources Initiative
What is our most important natural resource in the BACOG area? Many people would probably answer “open space” or perhaps “the residents.” What about our natural resources or our drinking water? Now imagine, what if the aquifers were contaminated or diminished from overuse? Water from the local aquifers is the lifeblood of the Barrington area. Residents are totally dependent on local natural resources to supply all their water needs. Any threat to the quantity or quality of water in the aquifers—through overuse of wells or contamination from septic systems or high intensity uses—would threaten the public health, safety and welfare and our community structure. Knowing this raises many questions. How much water do we have? How deep are the shallow aquifers in the region? What is the economic value of our water resources? The Barrington Area Council of Governments recently created a “Water Resources Initiative and Committee” (WRI) to answer these questions and to analyze the relationship of development to water resources. WRI will the study ground water of the Barrington region. The goal of WRI is to develop the technical data and community resources needed to support the linkage between land use and natural resources that has been the basis for planning for the past 30 years. It has become increasingly important to inventory, document, analyze and articulate the capacity of the region’s water supply. The Initiative should produce: test well sites; mapping of surface waters, wetlands and aquifers; conservation/education materials; and policy recommendations.
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