Serving the mid-Island
Water wells in Nanoose Bay
Electoral Area E — where the aquifer changes with the elevation.
Nanoose Bay sits in Electoral Area E of the Regional District of Nanaimo, over more than one aquifer. Nanoose Hill is Benson Formation bedrock with a median well depth near 80 m and a median yield around 5 US gallons a minute. Below it, sand and gravel carries flowing artesian conditions recorded on well logs near the peninsula.
Elevation does the sorting here. The hill is rock and the flats are sediment, and the well that suits one is nothing like the well that suits the other. Both sit close enough to salt water that where the well goes is a question about more than depth.
The hill and the flats
Aquifer 218 under Nanoose Hill is Benson Formation bedrock: a median well depth around 80 m, a median yield near 5 US gallons a minute, and a median depth to water around 6 m. Records range from 14 m to 186 m. Below the hill, sand and gravel aquifers carry a different profile entirely, with depth to bedrock averaging around 45 m. Which one a property sits on is an elevation question before it is a drilling question.
Flowing artesian conditions
Wells that flow at the surface without pumping are documented here. Five wells near the Nanoose Peninsula are recorded as flowing artesian on one aquifer, two more on another, and three wells on Nanoose Hill were reported flowing at the time of drilling. Artesian flow is not a windfall. Under the Groundwater Protection Regulation it must be controlled, the well configured to prevent backflow, and the control equipment maintained — and a driller stopping or controlling that flow needs demonstrated competency in doing it.
Salt water and the shoreline
Saltwater intrusion potential has been identified in the coastal parts of the sand-and-gravel aquifer here, and one of the two Nanoose surficial aquifers was reported much below normal heading into summer 2026. Proximity to the shoreline changes both where a well should go and how hard it should be pumped, because over-drawing a coastal well is the mechanism by which salt water arrives.
On the hill or below it, near the shore or back from it — the answers differ by a few hundred metres in Nanoose Bay. To find out which applies, 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.