Ground
water supplies a majority of the nation’s community water systems and almost
half of its irrigation, but currently there is no system that can provide a
nationwide assessment and evaluation of the conditions, availability or
water-quality trends of the country’s ground water resources. To respond to the
need for better knowledge of this valuable resource, five pilot projects have
been chosen to test the concept of a national ground water monitoring
network.
“It’s like having a bank account and not knowing how much money you have and
whether you are losing or gaining money over time,” says Robert Schreiber,
co-chair of the Advisory Committee on Water Information’s Subcommittee on
Ground Water. “But instead of money, you have ground water, which supplies 78
percent of community water systems, provides water for nearly all of rural
America, and accounts for 42 percent of the nation’s irrigation
water.”
“Water has increasing importance in local, regional and national policy
decisions,” notes Matthew Larsen, associate director for water at the U. S.
Geological Survey (USGS). “With population growth, shifts in development, land
use, irrigation and growing concern with the effects of climate change on water
resources, it’s essential for scientists, resource managers and policymakers to
have access to sound information as a basis for decisions on ways to meet human
and ecosystem water needs.”
Federal, regional, state and local governments monitor ground water resources,
but the data are neither easily compiled nor readily accessible across
political boundaries. Data also are not gathered in some areas. That’s where
the pilots come into play.
“Watershed-based decision-making is a complex and challenging process,” says
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Mike Shapiro. “Significant
demands exist on our nation’s water resources. State ground water monitoring
pilot projects are an excellent first step in understanding the efficacy of
assembling a national ground water data set to support watershed decisions on a
more comprehensive basis.”
The USGS, the EPA and pilot partners from Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota,
Montana, New Jersey and Texas will collaborate to assess currently available
data, review methods of data collection and storage, pinpoint data gaps and
test data-sharing feasibility. “Montana has more than 900 routinely monitored
wells, and the potential to easily share our data with others to improve
national-scale assessments is exciting,” says Thomas Patton, Montana’s pilot
project leader. “Additionally, by working together, federal support may
eventually become available to assist state-operated networks with some of
their costs to provide data consistent with national
interests.”
The pilot phase kicked off Jan. 28, and the final pilot report is anticipated
to be completed in March 2011. Although many states submitted quality
applications to be pilots, existing resources allowed the subcommittee to
select only five partners. The pilot phase will provide valuable lessons
learned, so, if funding becomes available in the future, the project can grow
into a truly nationwide network.
John Jansen, the National Ground Water Association’s subcommittee
representative, captures the essence of the pilot projects: “This is the next
logical step toward responsible stewardship of the nation’s water resources and
the ecology and economy that depend on them.”
Monitoring Ground Water Resources
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