Serving the mid-Island
Water wells in Cedar and Yellow Point
Electoral Area A — bedrock on one side of the road, sand and gravel on the other.
Cedar and Yellow Point sit over Aquifer 162, fractured DeCourcy Formation sandstone rated low productivity and high vulnerability. The median well runs about 50 m for a median yield near 2 US gallons a minute, with median depth to water around 9 m. Electoral Area A also takes in sand and gravel at Cassidy, where wells are far shallower.
Few places in the district show the difference between rock and gravel as sharply as this one. Two properties a short drive apart can need wells that differ by a factor of four in depth and a factor of ten in yield, and the road between them gives no clue which is which.
The bedrock under Cedar and Yellow Point
Aquifer 162 is a bedrock aquifer in the DeCourcy Formation of the Nanaimo Group, rated low productivity and high vulnerability. The median well runs about 50 m with a median yield near 2 US gallons a minute; the average is higher at roughly 5, which tells you the spread is wide and the average is doing the flattering. Median depth to water is around 9 m. Water arrives through fractures rather than evenly through the rock, so two wells on adjacent lots can differ completely.
Cassidy is a different aquifer entirely
West of Cedar the ground changes to sand and gravel. Aquifer 161 has a median well depth of about 13 m and a median yield near 20 US gallons a minute — roughly a quarter of the depth for ten times the water. Iron and odour have been noted there. The practical consequence is that a quote for one address tells you almost nothing about the next, and the aquifer boundary, not the postcode, decides which conversation you are having.
What the water carries
Aquifer 162 has documented fluoride above the Canadian drinking water guidelines, high sulphur is common, coliform has been detected in some wells, and sea water intrusion and connate water have been reported in the area. A provincial groundwater survey covering South Wellington, Cassidy and North Oyster found manganese above 50 micrograms per litre in 10 per cent of samples, fluoride above the 1.5 milligram per litre maximum in 6 per cent, and all arsenic results below the guideline — with bedrock wells consistently higher than sand-and-gravel wells across the board.
Which aquifer a Cedar or Yellow Point property sits over changes the depth, the yield and the price, and the boundary does not follow the road. To settle it, get the property looked at.
Nearby service areas
Find out what is under the property.
Free site assessments across Electoral Areas A, B, E and F.