The Trust area's largest island draws its water from fractured rock the Province re-mapped in 2018 — and rated High vulnerability across every one of its main aquifers.
This page aggregates mirrored provincial aquifer and GWELLS records for Salt Spring Island parcel region. Of 6,457 regional land parcels, enough are linked to 4 aquifers to meet the coverage threshold. These aquifers carry 2,262 well records, 149 of them with provincial water-chemistry data, and 6 provincial observation wells recording long-term water levels.
Counts use stored parcel-region membership. They are not an island-only geographic wells census. Aquifer totals cover each selected aquifer in full, including any area outside the parcel region; selection requires at least 25 parcels or 5% of regional land parcels.
Bedrock — Fractured sedimentary rock; 48.9 km²; mapped 2018. Linked to 3,205 regional land parcels.
Vulnerability High; productivity Low; quality concern Local. Rock unit: Nanaimo Group.
1,053 wells on record; 4 water licences; 8 artesian; 65 wells with provincial water-chemistry data; 4 provincial observation wells (#276 Inactive, #227 Inactive, #281 Active, #438 Active).
Bedrock — Fractured sedimentary rock; 36.4 km²; mapped 2018. Linked to 1,290 regional land parcels.
Vulnerability High; productivity Low; quality concern Local. Rock unit: Nanaimo Group.
491 wells on record; 3 water licences; 21 artesian; 40 wells with provincial water-chemistry data; 1 provincial observation well (#373 Active).
Bedrock — Fractured crystalline bedrock; 48.8 km²; mapped 2018. Linked to 835 regional land parcels.
Vulnerability High; productivity Low; quality concern Local. Rock unit: Nitinat Formation and the Saltspring Intrusive Suite.
480 wells on record; 8 artesian; 36 wells with provincial water-chemistry data; 1 provincial observation well (#223 Inactive).
Bedrock — Fractured crystalline bedrock; 51.4 km²; mapped 2018. Linked to 371 regional land parcels.
Vulnerability High; productivity Low; quality concern Isolated. Rock unit: Sick Group / Buttle Lake Group.
238 wells on record; 5 artesian; 8 wells with provincial water-chemistry data.
Salt Spring's mapped groundwater is divided among several bedrock aquifers — a mix of fractured sedimentary and fractured crystalline rock — covering the north, the central Ganges area, and the south. The Province rates every one of them High vulnerability and Low productivity. Three smaller sand-and-gravel aquifers at Ganges Harbour, Fulford Harbour and Walker Hook are rated Moderate vulnerability and cover only a fraction of the island's lots.
Salt Spring's bedrock aquifers carry a 2018 mapping year and the harbour aquifers 2019 — among the most recently reviewed classifications in the Trust area. The Province's newer aquifer records do not carry the older demand rating, so that field is blank here rather than guessed at.
The page reports Salt Spring's registered well records and wells with provincial water-chemistry (EMS) data. Those counts show the coverage of the mirrored record. They do not by themselves measure water demand, contamination or how much additional development an aquifer can support.
The Province classifies each mapped aquifer's intrinsic vulnerability — how easily contamination at the surface could reach the water — as Low, Moderate or High, based on factors like depth to water and what covers the aquifer. A High rating means relatively little natural protection between the surface and the water people draw from. It describes susceptibility, not current contamination. Productivity describes how readily the aquifer yields water; demand describes the level of use. These are the Province's classifications, not ours.
Most Gulf and Northern Gulf island aquifers are fractured rock: water sits in cracks in sedimentary or crystalline bedrock rather than in a porous bed of sand and gravel. Fractured-rock aquifers store comparatively little water and move it unevenly, which is why neighbouring wells on the same island can report very different yields, and why the Province rates most of these aquifers Low productivity.
Aquifer boundaries are a toggleable layer on the island map. This page presents provincial data with explanatory context; it makes no claims about individual wells or properties.