Review of groundwater monitoring data (2004-2010) from the Waihora well field, Lake Taupo catchment

TR 2011/27
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Report: TR 2011/27

Author: Roland Stenger (Lincoln Ventures Ltd)

Abstract

Lincoln Ventures was contracted by Waikato Regional Council to provide a comprehensive review of groundwater level and chemistry data collected at two water table well (WTW) transects in the Waihora well field for the period 2004 – 2010.

Land use at the site was relatively low intensity sheep and beef grazing as found widespread in the Lake Taupo catchment. The WTWs comprised of relatively long screen lengths that intersected the groundwater table, hence yielded composite samples of groundwater drawn from a water column of variable thickness.

In contrast, multilevel wells (MLWs) that were additionally installed in 2007 enabled sampling of discrete depth ranges of 50 cm
thickness, which allowed for detection of vertical groundwater chemistry stratification. Data from these MLWs have been used to facilitate the interpretation of the WTW data. A discussion of the implications of the different well types on monitoring data has been included in this report..