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Drinking Water
Groundwater is an important drinking water source for municipalities and private wells. Groundwater does not occur in underground rivers or lakes; instead, water soaks into the tiny spaces between sand, gravel, or the mineral grains that make up solid rock, forming water-saturated geologic layers called aquifers.
Groundwater is ordinarily an ideal, economical source of water, protected from pollution and needing little or no treatment because the layers of soil and rock between the ground surface and the aquifer act as filters or barriers. However, if the quantities of contamination are great enough, or the contamination occurs over a wide enough area or time period, groundwater can become polluted to a level that violates drinking water guidelines. In recent years, contamination from leaking pipelines and storage tanks, leachate (highly polluted water produced by draining waste materials) from dumps and landfills, waste lagoon leaks or failures, industrial waste disposal sites, fertilizer, and pesticide use have been discovered in groundwater aquifers once thought to be safe.
This page was last updated on: 10/18/2010
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