Altogether ten new monitoring wells will be drilled in the catchment areas of the rivers Loobu, Sõmeru and Kunda of the Lääne-Viru County within the framework of the activity C10.1 of the project LIFE (LIFE IP CleanEST, LIFE17 IPE/EE/000007). The wells will be drilled for studying chemical composition of groundwater, and for assessing concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds as well as their distribution and origin within the Silurian-Ordovician groundwater horizons in the northern part of the Pandivere nitrate-vulnerable area and its vicinity. The aim of the research is also to assess the impact of groundwater quality on the quality of water of rivers originating from the northern slope of the Pandivere Upland.
The study is carried out in co-operation with the Water and Environmental Engineering Research Group of the Tallinn University of Technology Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, and with the Estonian Environmental Research Centre. Drilling was initiated on 20 March and will be accomplished in early May.
The research wells will be involved in monitoring of chemical composition of groundwater, carried out within the framework of the LIFE project and lasting until the year 2022. The monitoring wells will be drilled by the private limited company Viru Geoloogia OÜ.
The project LIFE IP CleanEST for improving the state of water bodies was started in the end of the year 2018 under the leadership of the Estonian Ministry of the Environment. Its costs are approximately 16.7 million euros and it will last ten years. The focus within the project is in improving the state of surface water and groundwater bodies of the Ida-Viru and Lääne-Viru Counties and in analysing possible measures for ameliorating their state. Additional information (in Estonian) can be found in the net page https://life.envir.ee/life-ip-cleanest.
