Ground Water Protection Council
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Key Message
As a nation, efforts to monitor and characterize ground water resources with
regard to quantity and quality have been sporadic and, while successful in some
local jurisdictions and watersheds, largely inadequate.We need to collect more
reliable, consistent, and comprehensive data that will sufficiently characterize
ground water quality and quantity in order to support critical water resource
use, protection, and management decisions. This should be done through a
coordinated (federal, state, and local) national data collection and monitoring
program that gives decision makers the ability to identify such critical
information as:
- Baseline ambient ground water quality.
- Where and how ground water quality is being degraded.
- Location of ground water recharge areas.
- Patterns of ground water withdrawal and recharge within identified
watersheds (to sustainably allocate resources and maintain healthy
ecosystems).
- Ground water contribution to stream baseflows and areas of ground
water/surface water interaction.
- Relationship and significance of ground water quantity and quality
to the maintenance of healthy rivers, lakes, streams, wildlife
habitats, and fisheries within given hydrogeologic settings.
Photo: Alan Cressler
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why ground water characterization and monitoring matters...
Photo: JECO Photo
While we have made strides in understanding how ground water/surface water systems work,
our ability to characterize how our human activities affect the many natural processes and interactions
inherent to specific systems has been constrained. This is primarily due to the lack of
long-term sustained support and funding for ground water quality and quantity data collection,
analysis, research and development trends, and information dissemination.
Policy makers at all levels of government will be faced with crucial decisions
regarding growth and development alternatives and tradeoffs. These decisions
must be based on high-quality data.
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Recommended Actions
To CONGRESS:
Support the efforts by, and provide the necessary funding to, federal and
state geologic surveys and water resource agencies to further hydrogeologic
mapping and ground water monitoring networks (e.g., ambient,
impacted-area, targeted) needed to understand, manage, and protect the
nation’s ground water resources.
To USEPA:
- Ensure that ground water is clearly identified as an integral part of EPA’s
strategic plan, national monitoring strategy, and other federal agency
resource management plans. Specific changes should include:
- Giving states flexibility in their use of the Clean Water Act §106 and §319
funding for ground water protection.
- Guidance to states to include ground water as part of state monitoring
strategies and monitoring reports, such as Clean Water Act §305(b) reports.
To USGS and State Geological Surveys:
- Ensure the availability of quality data at scales amenable to watershedbased
decision making associated with water planning and allocation, management,
and development, especially in watersheds that may cross state
boundaries and jurisdictions.
- Continue to actively support, including financially, the Advisory Committee
on Water Information’s Subcommittee on Ground Water.
To Governors and State Legislatures:
- Provide funds to establish, operate, and maintain ground water quality
and quantity monitoring networks that include ambient, targeted, and
impacted areas.
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, in conjunction with the Wyoming Department of Agriculture and
USEPA, contracted with the University of Wyoming to develop statewide vulnerability maps to assess the tendency or likelihood
for contaminants to reach a specified position in the ground water system after being introduced at a location above the uppermost
aquifer.
Source: http://waterplan.state.wy.us/plan/green/techmemos/swquality.html
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