About this Event
The Unseen Lifeline: Groundwater's Role in Cape Cod’s Ecosystem
Join us in person for a deep dive into the hidden world beneath Cape Cod!
Join the Barnstable County Clean Water Center for a special National Groundwater Awareness Week event featuring Denis LeBlanc, Scientist Emeritus, and Marcel Belaval, Deputy Director, both with the U.S. Geological Survey’s New England Water Science Center.
LeBlanc has spent five decades studying Cape Cod’s precious groundwater resources, coordinating multidisciplinary research on aquifer dynamics, contaminant transport, and long-term freshwater sustainability.
Belaval guides the USGS’s hydrologic science and monitoring programs in New England, drawing upon his expertise in groundwater, contaminant hydrology, and hydrogeophysics and his former position as hydrologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency New England Regional Office.
Discover how groundwater plays a huge role in our everyday life on Cape Cod as well as feeds our rivers, ponds, wetlands and marshes, coastal waters and estuaries as well as drinking water wells. LeBlanc and Belaval will share insights from their work on the Cape's hydrogeologic setting, groundwater flow, groundwater/surface-water interactions, the fate and transport of contaminants, and how science can be used to guide local and regional water management. Attendees will gain a deeper appreciation for the unseen world beneath our feet and how they can help protect this vital resource.
About the speakers:
Denis LeBlanc is a Scientist Emeritus with the New England Water Science Center, where he conducts research on the hydrology of shallow, unconfined groundwater/surface-water systems and the fate and transport of contaminants.
He joined the USGS in 1975 and, until 1983, participated in and led investigations of Cape Cod's hydrologic system. From1983 until his retirement in 2023, he conducted and coordinated multidisciplinary research at the USGS Cape Cod Toxic Substances Hydrology Research site at Joint Base Cape Cod (JBCC) near Falmouth, Mass. He also led the team that provided technical support to Air Force and Army National Guard environmental restoration programs at JBCC and participated in several projects with the U.S Environmental Protection Agency on nitrogen and other wastewater contaminants in Cape Cod's groundwater.
Denis received his B.S. in Hydrology from the University of New Hampshire and his M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Marcel Belaval is the Deputy Center Director of the New England Water Science Center, where he conducts strategic scientific program planning, helping to set the direction for the Center in providing relevant, accessible, and innovative water science to New England and the Nation.
With a background in groundwater, contaminant hydrology, and hydrogeophysics, Marcel’s professional practice is rooted in applying hydrologic science to water resource management. In his former position as a hydrologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency New England Regional Office, Marcel provided hydrology expertise to EPA’s water division.
Marcel is a NH Licensed Professional Geologist and earned a BS in Geology from the University of Connecticut and an MS in Geophysics from Boston College.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center, 4 Kittridge Road, Sandwich, United States
USD 0.00
