Meeting the Challenges of Groundwater in Fractured Rock Conference

On/before August 21, 2026

• NGWA member — $545
• NGWA early career member — $345 
• Government employee (ID required)* — $545
• Nonmember — $695
• Full-time student (ID required) — $150

Starting August 22, 2026

• NGWA member — $645
• NGWA early career Member —  $445
• Government employee (ID required)* — $645
• Nonmember — $795
• Full-time student (ID required) — $200

Optional September 23 field trip

• $135 — includes the bus transportation, lunch, and snacks

Please note: Accepted paper/poster/panel presenters will receive 25% off their registration fee; a discount code will be included in the abstract acceptance notification.

*Those registering as a government employee must do so by phone; online registration cannot be accepted.

Team discounts up to 10% available. Click here for more details.

The 2026 NGWA Fractured Rock Field Trip will provide participants with an opportunity to examine the detailed physical and chemical hydrogeology of the open-system geothermal wells at the Ilsley Library in Middlebury, Vermont, while also exploring the broader geologic framework that controls groundwater occurrence and flow in the region. The trip will begin at Mt. Philo State Park, where participants will observe the Ordovician Champlain Thrust Fault, which emplaced dolomitic sandstones of the Lower Cambrian Monkton Formation over the Upper Ordovician Stony Point Shale, and gain an overview of the entire field area. The trip will then continue to Bristol Falls in Bristol, where the Lower Cambrian Cheshire Quartzite and Dunham Dolostone are folded into kilometer-scale anticlines and synclines east of Middlebury. Additional stops will examine Precambrian (Mesoproterozoic) gneisses and schists within the Devonian Ripton Anticline, which unconformably and structurally underlie all of the rocks visited during the field trip. The excursion will conclude in the Ordovician Beldens and Chipman Formation carbonates, the fractured-rock aquifer units in which the Middlebury geothermal wells were completed.

Note: The field trip will involve periods of walking on uneven ground and standing.

Stop 1- View of Lake Champlain from Mt. Philo State Park.

Stop 2- Bristol Falls in Cheshire Quartzite.

Hotel Champlain

60 Battery Street

Burlington, VT  05401

 

Accommodations: NGWA has secured a limited block of rooms on a first come, first served basis at the group rate of $269 per night, plus any applicable taxes and fees. This rate applies to the NGWA room block and is valid until the August 29, 2026 cutoff date, unless our room block has been filled before that date. Click here for more information.