Hydrological Research Letters Vol. 11(2017) No. 3

A strategic analysis of an ongoing brownfield management conflict in Elmira, Ontario, Canada is conducted using the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution. This investigation of the situation as it existed in late 2016 constitutes an expansion of an earlier analysis of the dispute which focused on cleansing the groundwater aquifer, polluted by a chemical company in Elmira, to a controversy over the management of the pollution impacts on an adjacent creek. Besides the chemical plant, the other decision-makers involved in the 2016 dispute are the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of the Province of Ontario, local government, and a citizens’ advisory group. The connections of the 2016 conflict to the earlier study which took place in 1991 are discussed and the evolution of the previous situation to the current one is explored in depth, along with strategic insights.

The water budget and discharge processes in a seasonal tropical watershed were analyzed. The watershed has very stable base stream flows even in the late dry season and very quick direct runoff during rains. A tentative runoff error correction method applying an existing lumped runoff model was proposed in this paper and showed good agreement with the correct runoff error. After correcting runoff data, the annual average rainfall and runoff during the 11 years of 1998–2008 were calculated respectively as 1870.4 mm and 1229.2 mm. The average annual water loss was 641.2 mm. Distribution measurements of topsoil depth taken using a knocking cone penetration meter showed that this watershed has a deep topsoil layer (5.3 m average). Groundwater tables are apparent only in the lower area of the watershed. A saturated swamp area is a permanent feature near the weir. Results suggest that the stable base flow in this watershed was generated by return flow of soil-water infiltration into the thick topsoil and fractured bedrock.