Christina's Assignment Previous Cost of Groundwater Pollution Next References

Global Outlook and Conclusions 

     Groundwater is a crucial resource for people around the world.  A significant fraction of the Earth’s freshwater is stored in underground aquifers and this plays a significant role in many ecosystems by replenishing the water in rivers, streams, and wetlands [52, 53].  Groundwater also provides for humanity.  It serves as the drinking water source for nearly one third of the world population; close to 99% of the rural United States population and 80% of the villagers in India rely on groundwater as their drinking water source [52, 53] and people throughout the world use groundwater for irrigation, which accounts for approximately two thirds of the worldwide usage [52]. 

     With the growing population around the world, the demand on groundwater is increasing and the need for clean groundwater is crucial.    However, groundwater contamination can be found throughout the world.  For example, in India groundwater was found as being unfit for drinking in 22 major industrial zones surveyed by India's Central Pollution Control Board in the late 1990s [52, 53].  China has nitrate concentrations in groundwater that has exceeded the health guideline in more than half of the locations studied in the northern provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and Shandong in 1995.  In 2000 it was estimated that 20,000 to 60,000 km^2 of area of the groundwater systems in European communities may be polluted within 50 years due to increased and urban and industrial areas and population concentrations [49].   In Europe, the cost of groundwater pollution cleanup and prevention is more than $5 billion per year [49].

          For the United States the problem of groundwater pollution has been recognized since the 1980s when Congress and the states passed legislation that required restoration of groundwater in contaminated aquifers to background or drinking water standards[32, 47].   In 1994, the NRC [47] estimated that the total number of waste sites where groundwater was possibly contaminated ranged from approximately 300,000 to 400,000.  One example is the wells in California's San Joaquin Valley where one third contained the pesticide DBCP at levels 10 times higher than the maximum allowed for drinking water in 1988, which was more than a decade after its use was banned.

          Some of the major areas of groundwater contamination in the United States come from military facilities.  The Department of Defense (DOD) first initiated environmental restoration efforts in 1975.  As part of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986, the DOD created the Defense Environmental Restoration program to indentify, investigate, and clean up contaminated groundwater [50].    Through this program close to 6,000 sites have been identified at active, closing, and formerly used defense facilities where the groundwater has been contaminated by past defense activities and the improper disposal of hazardous wastes [50].   The active and closing sites are broken down as 2,500 for the Air Force; 2,000 for the Navy; 800 for the Army, and 16 for the Defense Logistics Agency [50]. The formerly used sites are more than 500 sites for which the Corps is responsible for cleanup [50].

          Dealing with groundwater that has been contaminated depends on governmental policies and actions throughout the world.  Some of the policies governing groundwater in the United States are listed in the Regulation and Management section.  Preventing groundwater contamination relies on the threat of governmental policies as well as nonregulatory actions and the potentially responsible parties acting environmentally.  Examples of actions that have been and should be taken include: retooling industrial agriculture to sustainable approaches to reduce farm runoff  (Diego's Assignment), companies taking greater responsibility for their toxic discharges, manufactures reusing materials and chemicals to reduce leakage from landfills, manufactures switching to less toxic alternatives, switching to biofuels and environmetally-friendly alternatives to crude oil (Seth's-Assignment), and governments evoking pollutant taxes [52, 53].   Other methods to control environmental pollution sources are shown in Figure 14. 

Figure 14:  Methods to control groundwater contamination taken from [49]. 

     In conclusion, groundwater is a considered a valuable resource and its sustainability is essential for humanity as well as many different ecosystems that rely on it for survival.  Groundwater sustainability has been threatened as a result of human activities causing contamination.  However, contamination can be prevented or remediated and responsible parties are subject to many policies that have been developed for groundwater protection.  This project reviewed several topics that deal with groundwater contamination and its effect on sustainability.

                                                                                                                                       Previous Cost of Groundwater Pollution Next References