A field campaign based on the water sampling of 50 springs was realized by the Geological Survey of Belgium (GSB) between October 2019 and March 2020. The aim of studying spring water in the near field (in the Havelange drilling area) and in the far field (near the analogues sites) was to determine the mineral composition of the water and to survey other key parameters for the geothermal exploration such as: pH, Electric Conductivity and temperature (Figure 1).
During this campaign, the GSB team met many citizens (landowners, farmers, hikers, etc.) with whom they had the opportunity to explain the goals of the MEET Project.
Figure 1: Spring example in the locality of Hamoir, Belgium (Y. Vanbrabant, 2019).
The encountered citizens are interested by geothermal energy and they have a positive outlook regarding the development of this sector in Europe. After 4 consecutive years of drought the citizens are directly facing the consequences of the global warming and they understand the necessity of transition towards a larger application of renewable energies. A lot of residents around the Havelange site still remember the drilling of this exploration well in the 80’s and they are mostly favorable regarding the utilization of the site for a geothermal project if the potential is demonstrated. A project of the use of the geothermal energy near Havelange will have to be developed in consultation with all the stakeholders.
The GSB often had to explain the geology of the area and why the far field is important to understand the Havelange area subsurface and to study the potential geothermic reservoir when encountered citizens. Although a database of springs exists, many of them are not referenced or they are not precisely localized. However, the GSB has managed to find numerous springs with the help from residents in cases where springs were hidden by the vegetation or obstacles (Figure 2 and Figure 3 ).
Figure 2: The spring of ‘Ri de Champay’ is the main water source for this pond (Y. Vanbrabant, 2020).
Figure 3: This building hosts the ferruginous mineral spring of Harre near Ferrières (Y. Vanbrabant, 2020)
