Record budgets for groundwater

Abstract

A record $225 million is expected to be allocated for management of the nation's groundwater resources for the 1990 budget year by federal funds. The recent report by the White House Office of Science and Technology, Federal Ground‐Water Science and Technology Programs: The Role of Science and Technology in the Management of the Nation's Ground‐Water Resources, noted, “As the demands on the water resources of the nation increase, there will be an increasing need to apply the science of groundwater hydrology to find ways to provide reliable water supplies.”The report identifies emerging scientific issues and needs and the major challenges faced in providing science and technology to support informed management of the nation's groundwater resources. In particular, the report notes that the most viable approach to groundwater quality management is prevention rather than restoration and that that scientific uncertainties, lack of adequate technologies, lack of basic data, and shortage of skilled scientific personnel are hindrances to federal, state, and local governments and the private sector developing and implementing groundwater management, protection, and remediation policies and programs.