Nation's Ground-water Resources Research Articles

USGS sets goals for U.S. Earth science needs

Citing the importance of the earth sciences in meeting the resource needs of the nation, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has outlined its current goals in meeting its mission to provide essential geologic, topographic, and hydrologic information in service to the public. Some highlights of selected USGS goals that are designed to meet national needs related to the hydrologic sciences include Timely Reporting of Events and Conditions: Provide timely reporting, and forecasts when possible, of important hydrologic and geologic events and conditions of immediate concern to the public and to government bodies. Water Resources Assessment: Increase knowledge of the distribution and quality of the nation's groundwater and surface water resources for use in the formulation and evaluation of policies and programs that assure the most efficient use of the nation's water resources. Hydrologic Processes: Increase understanding of the processes that affect the properties and movement of water and its dissolved and suspended constituents through hydrologic systems.

Regulating Pollution Sources under a Differential Groundwater Protection Strategy

For many years economists have lobbied long and hard for site-specific environmental controls, arguing that national uniform standards create significant inefficiencies. Even when uniform standards are successful at maximizing net social benefits for average national conditions, they are overly stringent at some sites and inadequately protective at others. The fact that most environmental protection regulations are of the national uniform variety indicates the weight of the arguments used against tailored regulatory schemes. Tailored standards are considered difficult and costly to administer, politically unpalatable to the extent that they appear to offer more protection to some constituencies than to others, and inequitable in that they impose different regulatory burdens on similar polluters. Despite these drawbacks, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Congress have tried, in separate actions, to institute mechanisms for differential protection for the nation's groundwater resources. In this paper I describe and compare EPA's Ground-Water Protection Strategy and the groundwater provisions contained in the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1986 in terms of their ability to target environmental pollution controls according to resource value.

Irrigated Agriculture and Groundwater Quality—A Framework for Policy Development

paper argues that irrigated agriculture's impact on goundwater is another water quality concern that is rapidly growing in importance and well deserves our profession's attention and research efforts. Groundwater is now the source of 50% of U.S. drinking water supplies and 40% of irrigation withdrawals, with reliance on groundwater varying tremendously across regions. Irrigated agriculture is the largest single user of the nation's groundwater resources, accounting for 70% of annual groundwater use. Groundwater withdrawals are increasing at double the rate of increase for surface water use, with half a million new wells drilled each year (Henderson et al., p. 9). As a part of a broader research effort examining water markets, values, and quality in the western United States (Saliba, Bush, and Martin), this paper explores the potential roles of public regulations and private markets in water quality management. The discussion focuses on nitrates, pesticides, and dissolved solids, the three principal groundwater contaminants associated with irrigated agriculture.

Groundwater Contamination in the United States

Seldom has the sociotechnical community been more ready for a broad overview on an environmental issue than it is currently for a book on the subject of groundwater contamination in the United States. Many individuals, organizations, and institutions are asking: How much of our nation's groundwater resources are contaminated? Is our groundwater contamination problem getting worse and what is the longterm prognosis? What are the most significant causes of groundwater contamination and what are the most promising cures?

Second National Symposium on Groundwater Quality Set

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Water Well Association are sponsoring a Second National Conference on Groundwater Quality to be held September 25–27, 1974, at the Holiday Inn in downtown Denver, Colorado.The purpose of the meeting is to bring together a nucleus of men, methods, and ideas capable of yielding solutions to problems that must be solved to ensure the protection and restoration of the quality of the nation's groundwater resources. Development of these resources is expected to double and perhaps triple in the coming decade.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Policy on Subsurface Emplacement of Fluids by Well Injection: ABSTRACT

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (public law 92-500) provide for comprehensive controls on surface water, but do not provide for specific regulatory control over subsurface water at the federal level. The only applicable regulatory provision of the act is for a federally approved state permit program which, among other things, requires a qualifying state authority to issue permits to control the disposal of pollutants into wells. Because of provisions in the new legislation requiring upgrading of the quality of discharges to both air and surface water, an increased assault on the quality of the nation's groundwater resources is anticipated. The EPA policy statement does not purport to have legal sanction, but rather puts the Agency on record as b ing opposed to the emplacement of materials by subsurface injection without strict controls and a clear demonstration that such emplacement will not interfere with present or potential use of the subsurface environment, contaminate groundwater resources, or otherwise damage the environment. The EPA policy does have some clout, however, in that it is designed to discourage the diversion of wastes treatable on the surface to the subsurface for the purpose of avoiding discharge permits or other provisions of P.L. 92-500, and most certainly will be used by the states in designing permit programs that will meet federal approval for the disposal of pollutants in wells. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1596------------