Want to learn about the water beneath us?  Attend the “Virtual Hydro-Geologic Tour of Rockingham and Augusta” on Wednesday, June 26.  Joel Maynard, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s Groundwater Characterization Geologist for our region, will be describing the occurrence and movement of groundwater in our area. His presentation, which will include photos and fascinating underwater videos of boreholes and springs, will educate those who attend about groundwater concepts and provide a rare opportunity to see how groundwater actually operates in our area.  Further, it will demonstrate the interconnectedness of surface water and groundwater in the area’s karst regions, and how important it is that we protect our water resources.

Joel obtained his Master’s degree in geology from Virginia Tech in 1999, with a master’s thesis on the influences of tectonic and climatic-related subsidence on the formation of sedimentary rocks in the Appalachian Basin.  Joel worked with the DEQ’s Petroleum Remediation Program for about five years before joining the agency’s newly-formed Groundwater Characterization Program in 2006.  Joel is the agency’s expert studying the quality and quantity of the groundwater in the Valley and Ridge and Appalachian Plateau Provinces of Virginia.  Joel is frequently pulled away from “his” region to assist with the groundwater studies in eastern Virginia where groundwater resources are managed by DEQ to prevent overuse.  Hopefully, Joel will have time to mention some of those issues; however, other than a brief overview of the Groundwater Characterization Program, his presentation will focus primarily on groundwater in our area.

Dave Forrer is the event coordinator for this CE event.  (Dave spent 25 years with the DEQ’s Petroleum Remediation Program…making sure leaks from petroleum storage tanks were properly investigated and cleaned up.)  For more details about this presentation, please contact Dave at davidforrer07 [at] gmail [dot] com or 540-271-2539.

Joel’s talk will be held in the:
DEQ conference room, 4411 Early Rd, Harrisonburg
Wednesday, June 26, 2019, 7-9:00PM

Top photo is of Joel Maynard on the job. Photos courtesy of Joel. 

View of inside of a well.

Well work in Dayton.