Technical Tours

In addition to the mid-congress tours that are included in the full delegate registration packages, a number of pre- and post-congress field trips are being organized. The pre- and post-congress technical tours travel to locations both within and outside Ontario.

The pricing for pre- and post-congress tours is not confirmed but estimates are provided below. At this time we are asking delegates to indicate their interest in taking one of the pre- or post-congress tours when registering. Final pricing will depend on the number of participants.

Pre-congress Tours
Mid-congress Tours
Post-congress Tours

Pre-congress Tours – Sunday, September 16

The Waterloo Moraine - One of Canada's Leading Groundwater Management Programs

Duration:	1 day
Dates:	Sunday, September 16
Cost:	Approximate Cost - $100 (plus taxes)
Leader:	Eric Hodgins

This one day trip will travel northwards from Niagara Falls along the Niagara Escarpment to the Waterloo Moraine situated within the heart of the Grand River Watershed a recognized Canadian Heritage River. The Regional Municipality of Waterloo is unique in that it is Canada's largest urban municipalities to rely almost entirely on groundwater. Over 100 wells are used to supply drinking water to an ever growing population of close to 1 million people that reside in one of Ontario's main economic growth areas. The Region was one of Canada's first municipalities to recognize the importance of linking land use management to groundwater protection, and since 1994 has strived to ensure that the groundwater in the Region is protected. The trip will visit aggregate pits on the moraine, the beautiful Grand River, the Mannheim Aquifer Storage and Recovery site, and some of the Region's well fields where delegates will hear details about one of Ontario's and Canada's premier efforts in Source Water Protection.

Mid-congress Tours – Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Contaminated Sites of Niagara Falls

Date:	Wednesday, September 19, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Cost:	Included in delegate registration package – Additional guest tickets: $75 before March 16, $85 before June 16, $95 on/after June 16 (plus taxes)

This trip will go across the Niagara River into the United States to visit some of the famous contaminated sites in the Niagara Falls, New York area. Love Canal in particular, but also other nearby sites such as Hyde Park, garnered North American wide attention in the 1970’s when materials disposed of in these hazardous waste sites were found to be affecting the health of nearby residents. Love Canal was one of the initial contaminated sites that was instrumental in the passing of the Superfund legislation in the United States. The trip will explore the evolution of contaminated sites investigation using the Niagara Falls sites as case studies.

Note: Attendees will have to walk across the Rainbow bridge international border to catch the bus on the U.S. side of the border so that there will not be untimely delays in getting a bus across the border. Attendees must ensure that they have proper documentation (Passports, visas. etc.) to get into the United States.

Silurian/Ordovician Hydrogeology of Ontario

Date:	Wednesday, September 19, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Cost:	Included in delegate registration package – Additional guest tickets: $75 before March 16, $85 before June 16, $95 on/after June 16 (plus taxes)

Late Ordovician and Early Silurian sedimentary rocks form the Niagara Escarpment – a more than 1,000km-long cuesta face that extends from northwestern New York State (Appalachian Basin) through southwestern Ontario (eastern and northern Michigan basins) to northern Michigan (Upper Peninsula) and Wisconsin (Door Peninsula). These rocks, and their hydrogeological behaviour, are the focus of a variety of hydrogeological studies within these jurisdictions. Groundwater-related investigations within these mixed carbonate-siliciclastic successions are highly varied – ranging from municipal water supplies, monitoring around quarry operations and landfills, through to deep low level waste repositories and even petroleum related issues.

This trip will provide a close-up opportunity to investigate these rocks with discussion focused on the geologic controls of the groundwater flow systems and issues associated with understanding their regional variations. Half of the day will be spent hiking down the Niagara Gorge while the other half will have a tour of one of the largest state-of-the-art quarry/landfill sites in the Niagara Region.

Note: Attendees must bring along appropriate footwear and be in reasonable health to hike the gorge.

Lake Erie to Lake Ontario

Date:	Wednesday, September 19, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Cost:	Included in delegate registration package – Additional guest tickets: $75 before March 16, $85 before June 16, $95 on/after June 16 (plus taxes)

This trip will explore the area between lakes Erie and Ontario with discussions centred on the massive development of the hydro-electricity that has occurred at Niagara over the past century. The trip will visit the Adam Beck generating station one of the largest power plants in the Niagara Area and termination of the recently completed 14 m diameter, 10.2 km bored tunnel. Starting in 2013, this tunnel, one of the largest in the world, will direct additional water to the turbines at the Adam Beck generating station. The trip will also include a stop at the Welland Canal to see ships traverse a series of locks as they move through the Great Lakes Seaway between the lakes. Coincidentally, the canal is the site of one of the first groundwater modeling studies in Canada.

Spills & Mills

Date:	Wednesday, September 19, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Cost:	Included in delegate registration package – Additional guest tickets: $75 before March 16, $85 before June 16, $95 on/after June 16 (plus taxes)

This leisurely trip will visit the Smithville PCB site, one of Canada's costliest contaminated sites, located in the community of Smithville. The trip will also include a stop at the Morningstar Mill at Decew Falls where the geology/hydrogeology of the Niagara Escarpment (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) rocks will be discussed. Finally we will visit one of the Niagara Region's world famous wineries to sample some of the region's fine wines.

Wines of Niagara

Date:	Wednesday, September 19, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Cost:	Included in delegate registration package – Additional guest tickets: $100 before March 16, $110 before June 16, $120 on/after June 16 (plus taxes)

There are numerous "benches" of micro-climate zones, and soil types found through the Niagara area which impart distinct attributes to the grapes grown. This trip will focus on the local wine areas of the Niagara area with discussions focused on Niagara's "terroir" districts (combination of geology, geography and soil, micro-climate, physiography). The registration fee for this tour is $25 higher to cover the cost of the wine samples at the vineyards.

Karst of Niagara Peninsula

Date:	Wednesday, September 19, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Cost:	Included in delegate registration package – Additional guest tickets: $75 before March 16, $85 before June 16, $95 on/after June 16 (plus taxes)

The Niagara Peninsula is the land between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. This trip will visit several interesting locations where karst investigations have been carried out in the dolomite bedrock. It will follow the Niagara Gorge, with stops to view the geological section and to discuss grouting issues at a major hydroelectric power station reservoir. The trip will continue to Smithville, where there were extensive studies at a PCB spill site in dolomite and where there are sinks and springs in the nearby creek, and then to the Eramosa Karst Conservation Area in Hamilton, an excellent example of youthful karst development with many dolines and a number of sinking streams and springs. On the return we will visit a winery on the microclimatically favoured benches below the Niagara Escarpment.

GW/SW Glacial Geology

Date:	Wednesday, September 19, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Cost:	Included in delegate registration package – Additional guest tickets: $75 before March 16, $85 before June 16, $95 on/after June 16 (plus taxes)

In Ontario, Conservation Authorities are charged with many water related activities, from the upkeep of dams to the regulation of development within floodplains, to the management of groundwater resources. This trip will visit several of Ontario's conservation parklands (e.g. Ball's Falls, Eramosa Karst, Byng Island) where staff will discuss numerous aspects of water management. Two aspects of Ontario hydrogeology that will be highlighted include the numerous buried bedrock valleys that underlie the landscape as well as groundwater-surface water interaction. In southern Ontario, fish species rely on discharging groundwater to keep eggs from freezing in winter and to keep fish cool in summer.

Post-congress Tours

Problems of Karst Hydrogeology, Conservation and Economic Development on the Niagara Escarpment, Ontario

Duration:	3.5 days
Dates:	Leaves Niagara Falls - Friday, September 21 Returns (via Toronto Airport) - Monday, September 24
Cost:	Approximate Cost - $600 (plus taxes)
Leaders:	Derek Ford, Steve Worthington, Darryl Cowell, Marcus Buck

The Niagara Escarpment extends for 500 km northwards through Ontario from the United States border at the Falls to the Bruce Peninsula that separates Lake Huron from Georgian Bay in the Great Lakes. It is a dolomite caprock landform with steep scarp faces above weaker aquitard strata, and gentle dip slopes locally dissected by deep re-entrants. Dolomite facies range from deltaic muddy and gypsiferous to thick-massive platform beds, patch reefs and abundant large bioherms. There is little tectonic deformation but jointing can be strong regionally. Dissolution has enhanced flow along fractures, creating high-permeability aquifers in the dolomites which are widely exploited for domestic and municipal supplies. Karst landforms include large tracts of dolostone pavement, dolines created by solution, collapse or suffosion, sinking streams and seasonal lakes, cave systems, point-located and areal systems of springs.

There is a 150-year history of forestry and farming. The Escarpment rim is now protected (partly as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve), there are two national parks at the north end, numerous conservation areas, and extensive tracts stewarded under non-governmental conservation reserves. Modern economic pressure for aggregate quarrying and for golf, ski resort and suburban development, is severe. This tour will explore examples of all of the problems that arise, led by consultants with site-specific expertise. It leaves Niagara Falls immediately after the IAH Congress closing ceremonies on 21 September, spends that night at Collingwood and the following two nights in Tobermory at the tip of the Peninsula. It returns to the Falls via Toronto International Airport (mid-afternoon) on September 24th. Highlights will include a half-day boat trip with landings on dolomite islands with significant karst and coastal erosion features in Fathom Five National Marine Park, a six km walk along marked trails following the rugged Georgian Bay coast on the Peninsula, and a visit to Walkerton where bacterial contamination of the water supply from dolomites and limestones resulted in seven deaths. The cost is provisionally estimated at Can $600 per person but it is hoped that this can be reduced if the tour is well supported.

Geology & Hydrogeology of the Lake Ontario – St. Lawrence Lowlands

Duration:	3.5 days
Dates:	Leaves Niagara Falls - Friday, September 21 Ends in Quebec City - Monday, September 24
Cost:	Approximate Cost - $950 (plus taxes)
Leaders:	Hazen Russell, Dave Sharpe

This three-day trip will start at the majestic Niagara Falls and trace a route downriver along the north shore of Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River to historic Quebec City. This corridor is the most intensely populated region of Canada and has some of the highest municipal groundwater demands. This urbanized region is underlain by Paleozoic clastic and carbonate bedrock that is buried by up to 150 m of Quaternary sediment. Day one of the trip will review the hydrogeology of Southern Ontario: three stops between Niagara Falls and Kingston, Ontario will be used to discuss the hydrogeology of bedrock buried valleys, the Lake Ontario Scarborough Bluffs, and sediment-hosted buried valleys in the Oak Ridges Moraine. Day two will travel between Kingston and Montreal and will review the water balance of the Great Lakes – St Lawrence System, the hydrogeology of high-yield, mud-buried esker aquifers in a glacimarine basin near Ottawa and fractured bedrock flow setting north of Montreal. Day three will review aquifer settings in Canada / USA transboundary aquifers of the Chβteauguay and Richelieu watersheds, where high-yield aquifers occur in coarse-grained sediments, above and below Champlain Sea clays; however, most wells draw water from fractured bedrock aquifers, with the exception of areas where saline groundwater underlies the marine clay aquitard. In Mauricie, large productive aquifers are hosted in complex stratigraphic settings associated with the Saint-Narcisse Moraine and its suite of glacimarine deltaic sediments.

Approximate cost $950.00 (30 participants with coach; accommodation and lunches inclusive, does not include breakfast and evening meal).

Canada's Oil Sands - Where Oil and Water Meet

Duration:	3 days
Dates:	Leaves Niagara Falls - Saturday, September 22 Ends in Fort McMurray, Alberta - Monday, September 24
Cost:	Approximate Cost - $1,750 (plus taxes - includes flight from Hamilton, Ontario to Fort McMurray, Alberta)
Leaders:	Steve Wallace, John Fennel

Join us to visit one of the most interesting geological sites on earth. Alberta's oil sands stretch across vast parts of Canada's boreal forest and hold one of the richest hydrocarbon accumulations on earth. It has taken many years for researchers to perfect the process of separating the oil from its sticky, sandy host materials. Whether the oil is being removed by conventional mining extraction methods, or through in-situ steam injection, it is turning out that many barrels of water are needed to process each barrel of oil. Much of this water is coming from groundwater. This trip, including a flight over the expansive oil sands development will explore the inter-related issues of oil sands development with environmental management and protection.

Hydrogeology & Geology of Ontario's Niagara Escarpment and Sudbury Basin

Duration:	3.5 days
Dates:	Leaves Niagara Falls - Friday, September 21 Returns (via Toronto International Airport) - Monday, September 24
Cost:	Approximate Cost - $850 (plus taxes)
Leaders:	Stewart Hamilton, Peter Richards, Frank Brunton

This trip will begin by winding our way along Ontario's Niagara Escarpment taking in some of the fascinating hydrogeological and picturesque geological stops along the way. Numerous springs and quarries dot the Ontario landscape and offer opportunities for examining the geology and hydrogeology of the Escarpment rocks close up. The trip's first day will also touch on the results of a multi-year, Ontario Geological Survey led, geochemical survey that is yielding some very interesting results with respect to Ontario's regional hydrogeology. The trip continues to Tobermory, Ontario, a historic town on the northern tip of the Bruce Peninsula dividing Lake Huron from Georgian Bay, where we will spend the first night. We hope to have a wine and cheese evening at the Parks Canada Visitor’s Centre with an evening talk on the Silurian geology of the Niagara Escarpment and some of the more interesting surface hydrology, karst landforms and bedrock hydrogeology. Saturday will see the trip head by boat to Cabot Head, an ideal way to view the hydrostratigraphy of the Silurian Strata of the Niagara Escarpment. We will explore the peninsula and nearby islands with staff from the Bruce Peninsula National Park and see the interesting karstic features, which control much of the groundwater flow where the formations are buried. Later on Saturday we will board the MS Chi-Cheemaun that will take us across the mouth of Georgian Bay to Manitoulin Island where we will drive through one of the most interesting Proterozoic successions on Earth along Hwy 6 from the La Cloche Islands to Espanola. Saturday night will be spent in Sudbury. Sudbury is home to the world's largest integrated mining complex. On Sunday we will tour a municipal landfill and one of the mine sites with a discussion on mine dewatering issues. Monday we will head back to Niagara Falls via Toronto International airport.