In late October, we visited Co. Roscommon to see some of the work that the GSI and Tobin Consulting Engineers are doing as part of a groundwater protection project across 9 group water schemes (GWSs). On this visit, we went to a local farm. As we walked through pastures, we learned about two karst features, dolines and turloughs, how to identify them, and their role in groundwater quality. We also visited Polecat Springs GWS, a GWS on a spring source in Co. Roscommon. In touring Polecat Springs’ water treatment facility, we saw some of the ways that managers and caretakers have solved problems that interfere with their day-to-day operations, for example in a cover that was built to keep out leaves fallen from a nearby tree. As we visited both of these landscapes, we learned about the histories and entanglements of agriculture and GWSs over the last several decades.
