Town/City: 

Fredericton

State/Province: 

New Brunswick

Country: 

Canada

Latitude/Longitude: 

46N 66.5W

Information supplied by

Jonathan Keizer

s5sb@unb.ca

Department of Civil Engineering, University of New Brunswick, 
PO Box 4400, Fredericton, NB, Canada, E3B 5A3

 

Dated Tue Feb 3 21:27:36 1998 

Information Topics:

City Description:

Fredericton is the capital of Canada's only officially bilingual (English/French) province, New Brunswick, and has a population of approximately 47000 based on the 1991 Canadian Census. As the Provincial capital, the City of Fredericton is the centre for three levels of government, and with a strong knowledge-based community, houses two universities, several research facilities, numerous consulting and management firms, and an ever-expanding sector of technology-based companies.

The City of Fredericton is located in south-central New Brunswick, with the downtown core situated in the Saint John River Valley. The city is divided by the north and south banks of the Saint John River, with the downtown core located on the south side of the river. The river elevation near the city is normally 2.5 m above mean sea level.

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Climate:

The climate of Fredericton is temperate with an average relative humidity of 83% and an average annual precipitation of 1000 mm. Fredericton enjoys four distinct seasons annually. The daily average maximum temperature during the month of July is 25.6 degrees Celsius, and in January the mercury dips to an average daily minimum temperature of -15.4 degrees Celsius.

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Basic Hydrogeology:

The basic hydrogeology of the Fredericton Aquifer has been defined through a series of water exploration investigations for the City of Fredericton, and by a number of research studies carried out by faculty and students at the University of New Brunswick.

The geology of the Saint John River Valley at Fredericton includes the presence of five unconsolidated geological units above bedrock. These five units include (from bedrock upward): buried sands and gravels; till deposits; glaciofluvial sands and gravels; lacustrine clayey silt; and fluvial sands and gravels. A cross-section of the Saint John River Valley is provided below. The most significant hydrogeologic units are the glaciofluvial sands and gravels, and the lacustrine clayey silt deposit. The glaciofluvial sands and gravels, which can be as thick as 50 m, form the Fredericton Aquifer.

Cross-section showing geology of Saint John River Valley (after Violette, 1990)

The lacustrine clayey silt deposit, which can be as thick as 60 m, overlays the glaciofluvial sands and gravels. The clayey silt deposit may help to protect the aquifer from near-surface contaminant sources; however, this deposit has been found to be discontinuous. These discontinuities, termed "windows", allow direct hydraulic recharge from the surficial fluvial sands and gravels to the deeper Fredericton Aquifer.

The general groundwater flow direction in the Fredericton Aquifer is toward the downtown core of the city and the Wilmot Park Well Field, the main groundwater extraction site in the city. At specific locations there is a good hydraulic connection between the Saint John River (mean daily discharge of approximately 810 m3/s) and the Fredericton Aquifer. Recharge to the aquifer is a mixture of locally infiltrated surface water, from snowmelt and rainfall, and water from the Saint John River. It is estimated that approximately 66% of all the water extracted from the Wilmot Park Well Field is recharge from the river.

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Water Use:

Water is currently supplied to the City of Fredericton from seven production wells with a total average daily withdrawal rate of 23 300 m3/day. An eighth production well is being developed for production commencing in the summer of 1998. These production wells supply approximately 90% of Fredericton's water demands. According to Environment Canada data collected in 1981, groundwater extraction from the Fredericton Aquifer was the largest municipal use of groundwater in the Atlantic Region of Canada.

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Groundwater Issues:

As the downtown core of the City of Fredericton overlies the Fredericton Aquifer, protection of the aquifer from contaminant sources from downtown businesses and residences is required. A common contamination source is petroleum hydrocarbons from gasoline service stations and heating oil used in residential and institutional buildings. Another potential contamination source is chlorinated hydrocarbons resulting from dry cleaning businesses. These potential contamination sources are particularly significant when they are located close to the "windows" in the clayey silt aquitard.

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Groundwater Problems:

High manganese concentrations are consistently found in several of the municipal wells. The manganese concentrations, which have increased steadily over the past 40 years, have been attributed to the temporal increase in recharge from the Saint John River.

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Solutions:

The following solutions have been implemented to protect and improve groundwater quality:

1) A groundwater protection plan for south Fredericton was developed in the early 1990s. Included in the plan are provisions to remove existing sources of potential contaminants such as residential oil storage tanks, as well as to prevent or improve the construction of potential contaminant sources in the future;

2) A groundwater treatment facility to remove excess manganese was constructed in 1984. This facility treats all groundwater extracted from the Wilmot Park Well Field.

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References and Other Author(s):

City of Fredericton 1996 water pumping record.  1996 Annual report of the City
Engineer, pp. 50-58.
Hess, P.J., 1981. Groundwater use in Canada. Environment Canada - National Hydrology Research Institute, Paper No. 28, pp. 43.

Peters, L.P., 1993. Integration of information for ground water protection - a case study in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Proceedings of the 11th Canadian Hydrotechnical Conference, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, Fredericton, New Brunswick, June, 1993, Vol.1, pp. 209-218.

Pupek, D.A., Craig, H.D., Schellenberg, D.H., 1993. An investigation into the distribution of dissolved tetrachloroethylene in an unconsolidated, surficial aquifer, Fredericton, N.B., using the hydropunch tool. Proceedings of the 11th Canadian Hydrotechnical Conference, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, Fredericton, New Brunswick, June, 1993, Vol.1, pp. 257-265.

Thomas, N.E., Kan, K.T., Bray, D.I., MacQuarrie, K.T.B., 1994. Temporal changes in manganese concentrations in water from the Fredericton Aquifer, New Brunswick. Ground Water, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 650-656.

Violette, G.G., MacQuarrie, K.T.B., 1993. An urban aquifer and the presence of petroleum hydrocarbons. Proceedings of the 11th Canadian Hydrotechnical Conference, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, Fredericton, New Brunswick, June, 1993, Vol.1, pp. 249-256.

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Contacts:

Laurie Corbett, P.Eng 
Water and Sewer Engineer 
City of Fredericton 
Public Works Department 
PO Box 130 
Fredericton, New Brunswick 
CANADA E3B 4Y7 
Telephone: (506) 460-2038 
Fax: (506) 460-2031 
E-mail: corbettl@city.fredericton.nb.ca 
Web: http://www.city.fredericton.nb.ca 		 Kerry MacQuarrie, PhD, P.Eng 
Coordinator, Groundwater Studies Group 
University of New Brunswick 
Department of Civil Engineering 
PO Box 4400 
Fredericton, New Brunswick 
CANADA E3B 5A3 
Telephone: (506) 453-5121 
Fax: (506) 453-3568 
E-mail: ktm@unb.ca 
Web: http://www.unb.ca/civil/
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