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Gilles Wendling, the short story...

Dr. Wendling has been involved in the assessment of water supplies (drinking water) and in the protection of groundwater resources. His fields of interest and expertise are the following:

•design of production wells;
• monitoring, maintenance and rehabilitation of water wells;
• characterization and protection of aquifers and watersheds;
• education on water supply systems, hydrogeology, water conservation and water microbiology;
• water management and water demand assessment; and
• ground disposal of treated liquid wastes.

Gilles Wendling is the Managing Director and the Director - Technical and Professional Division of the BC Groundwater Association.

Gilles Wendling is the president and founder of Global Aquifer Development Foundation, a Canadian charity creating partnerships with developing countries and assisting in the establishment of groundwater management systems.

Gilles Wendling has conducted and managed studies in many fields of hydrogeology such as:

•Water supply assessment and design of water wells;
•Environmental impact studies (commercial and industrial activities - mostly for the mining and petroleum industries);
•Impact assessments of municipal and regional solid waste and liquid waste disposal facilities;
•Geotechnical investigations (seepage and slope stability assessments);
•Etc.

He has published over a dozen technical publications in peer-reviewed (e.g., Groundwater) and other technical and professional magazines.

He has given over 40 presentations and workshops to audiences including:
•elementary and secondary school students,
•university students,
•regulators (Ministry of Environment, Health, Environment Canada)
•scientists; and
•the public.

He was in the organizing team of the CanWell 2004 PanCanadian groundwater convention and trade show (500 delegates).

He has also presented a series on groundwater on Radio Canada and was the keynote speaker at the First Annual Conference (2004), Planning Institute of Northern BC (topic: Watershed Management: Innovations And Challenges In Northern BC)

Key projects

Gilles Wendling has been involved with many varied, interesting and challenging projects, through which he has learned and discovered the complexity of groundwater over 18 years of consulting. Here are some examples:

•Investigation of water needs and water resources of 120 villages (150 to 3,000 inhabitants). Duties included a visit of each village, meeting with the representatives, global socio-economical study in order to estimate the most appropriate techniques to meet water needs. Guidimaka Region, Mauritania.

•Field manager, geotechnical investigations for a 6 million m3 reservoir, and field engineer for a well field assessment, Great Man Made River Project (irrigation project), Libya.

•Characterization and numerical modelling of a watershed serving several municipalities, regional district and private water purveyors, Mt. Arrowsmith Watershed, East Coast of Vancouver Island, BC, Canada

•Characterization of water sources used by a bottled water processing plant. The study was completed to satisfy the requirements of provincial health officers and to apply for an exporting license to California, Fanny Bay, BC.

•Hydrogeological assessment to identify origin of hot springs and possibility of using hot water as a geothermal source without impacting sensitive ecosystems, Liard Hotspring, BC.

•Retained as the main consultant for aquifer characterization and protection and for system operation of a large water purveyor relying only on groundwater, Clearbrook, BC.

•Design of educational material for both children and adults (posters, web pages) to promote water conservation, various municipalities, BC.

•Hydrogeological, hydrological, geotechnical and biophysical assessments of land proposed for large development (residential, commercial and golf course), East Coast of Vancouver Island, BC.

•Review and critique of a large hydrogeological study on behalf of the Halalt First Nation for a proposed series of production wells as part of a provincial and federal environmental assessment process, Chemainus River Aquifer, Halalt First Nation, BC.

•Characterization of hydrogeologic conditions of a landslide and implementation of depressurization wells, Kamloops, BC

•Assessment and remediation of contaminated subsurface along a foreshore at a petroleum refinery, Burnaby, BC.

•Remediation of hydrocarbon contaminated subsurface using soil vapour extraction and bioremediation enhancement through two horizontal wells and treating the extracted vapours with flow through a biocell before reinjection in a trench to reach zero discharge, Penticton, BC.