Well-Being

The state of groundwater varies around the world, but generally it's overused or under stress as a result of increased demand and decreased recharge. Like pipelines and other buried assets, groundwater is out of sight, so it can be more difficult to understand and manage. Across North America, hundreds of millions of people and most water systems rely on groundwater for public and personal supplies; it also provides base flow for surface water bodies and supports agriculture and healthy environments.

Groundwater supplies need to be protected, maintained, and improved, but there are many threats to their long-term quantity and quality. Measurement and monitoring of groundwater are too often outdated, unshared, or nonexistent. Climate change is leading to decreased precipitation which, along with other factors like urbanization, can reduce recharge and steadily deplete the local water table. Overuse of groundwater can lead to land subsidence in general, seawater intrusion in coastal areas, and local streamflow depletion.

Long-term losses and land-use changes can affect the nature of the underlying aquifer, diminishing its future capacity and reliability. New health effects from potential contaminants continue to emerge; for example, a recent USGS study reported that about 45% of US public supply wells and about 37% of domestic supply wells have concentrations of lithium that could present potential human-health risks. Pollution from agricultural sources, industrial effluents, and even surface water can make it more challenging to treat and use groundwater.

Facing stress from many factors, groundwater's value only grows. With likely higher temperatures that lead to increased evaporation and more sensitive environments in the future, groundwater storage may be the better option for augmenting local supplies compared with new or expanded surface water impoundments. The feasibility of treating brackish groundwater is steadily improving for growing inland communities. Looking forward, it's important that water professionals maintain the sustainability of groundwater supplies, with local decision makers balancing its major uses, which are public supply and agriculture.

How can the water industry improve its well-being—how can we improve groundwater security and reliability? For people, well-being strategies include trying to relax and reduce stress, finding ways to learn and be creative, and connecting with others—all of which apply well (pun intended) to groundwater. Water professionals must better understand urban and industrial growth near groundwater supplies, and new modeling approaches and better sensor technologies are increasing our understanding of groundwater use and changes in storage.

Sharing knowledge and conducting research will also help. Water professionals should keep an eye out for AWWA's newest edition of Manual of Water Supply Practices M21, Groundwater. Please also consider sharing your experiences with groundwater and drinking water systems by submitting an article to me at [email protected].