A group of NGWA member volunteers authored a white paper on groundwater protection that was approved by the NGWA Board of Directors in June.
The paper supports a recently published revision of an NGWA position paper on groundwater protection and addresses key points affecting the sustainable future use of groundwater.
Factors and challenges identified in the white paper include:
- The groundwater to be protected must include all essential elements of availability, environmental sustainability, use, and condition. Of the available freshwater supplies, 90 percent lie underground.
- Regarding use, groundwater withdrawals from fresh, brackish and saline aquifers (excluding for thermoelectric cooling) rose from 30,000 mgd in 1950 to 84,000 mgd in 2015, increasing almost three times in 65 years.
- Agricultural irrigation more than tripled over that period to 57,000 mgd (64.1 million acre-feet per year) in 2015 and accounts for 70 percent of fresh groundwater use and 48 percent of all irrigated agricultural use.
- Nearly 41 percent of the U.S. population uses groundwater for their domestic water supply, including virtually all rural residents.
- Nearly 30 percent of all water used in the nation is groundwater with about 44 percent of drinking water supplied from groundwater.
- Institutional control measures at some contaminated sites are leaving groundwater in a contaminated state indefinitely without plans for returning to beneficial use.
- More intense rainfall increases flooding, generating more water runoff and less infiltration and recharge.
- State programs and local projects for groundwater replenishment can incorporate the planning, design, and construction of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) facilities to address local water resilience.
- Increased awareness through education and outreach focused on the importance of groundwater to the wellbeing of communities and the nation is vital to ensuring support for local water supply and food production.
NGWA members can access all of NGWA’s white papers for free. Click here to download the white paper on groundwater protection.
Click here to view other NGWA white papers.