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Introduction and Overview
Uncertainty about groundwater supplies is hindering local governments making decisions on critical issues of economic development and wise land use. In order to evaluate how much groundwater is available in a particular place, and how good the water will be, one needs to have accurate information about both groundwater and geology. (more...)      Executive Summary

INTRODUCTION

This plan was developed in response to the extended drought of 2001 through 2003. Accordingly, the County Board of Supervisors determined that a comprehensive evaluation of the groundwater resource was warranted. Stafford County is faced with a high rate of growth and considerable residential development pressure. This trend is in balance with a developing commercial and industrial sector. Recreational use of the land in the form of golf courses has placed additional pressures on the groundwater resource. This Plan was prepared in an effort to evaluate and the groundwater resource and propose management strategies to protect both quantity and quality of the resource.

The primary source of data in this plan was existing Virginia Department of Health (VDH) well logs from individual wells serving single family wells. A total of 1669 well records were collected from various hardcopy sources, scanned into a digital format, condensed into a database and successfully georeferenced onto a Countywide Geographic Information System (GIS) platform. This data was then analyzed with respect to depth, yield, susceptibility, and relationship with geologic structure. In addition to defining the resource, this plan provides the basis for potential strategies to protect both the quantity and quality of the County’s groundwater for all its citizens.

From the outset of the project it was determined that this Plan would be supported by a companion web page that would provide an interactive platform for the data and access to the data by interested parties. Currently, the web address for the web page is daagis.com/Stafford. Readers of this Plan are encouraged to visit the website and explore the potential of interactively querying the data. An additional objective of the website was to eliminate the need for a hard copy appendices containing the well logs and database output. That information can be easily retrieved at the website.

Several previous studies have been conducted in the County that have provided valuable insight to the conditions and nature of the groundwater resource. These studies have included United States Geological Survey (USGS) studies (R.B. Mixon et. al., 1989), privately contracted studies (EGGI, Augustine Golf Club, 1996; ENSAT, Celebrate Virginia!, 2002; F&ME, Widewater, 1987) and County sponsored studies such as the Stafford County Groundwater Resource Protection Plan, 1994 and O’Brien & Gere Groundwater Supply Study, 1991 and 1994. Each of these studies evaluated specific elements of the groundwater resource. None of these studies are comprehensive in nature and none utilized the extensive amount available well data for the County. This Plan has built on the information and results in these previous studies to provide a County wide analysis of the conditions of the resource and to provide potential strategies to protect the resource.