As I prepared for the National Ground Water Association’s 2013 Groundwater Expo in Nashville, I wanted to take a look at the state of the industry and offer a few thoughts on its near future.
In 2005, the United States withdrew 82.6 billion gallons of groundwater per day. That estimate, from the U.S. Geological Survey, gives us the most recent federal snapshot of the importance of water well drillers, pump installers and other contractors supporting and servicing this vital resource. Since then, we’ve had a downturn driven by housing, deep recession and tepid recovery. After all that, I think we could safely assume that U.S. groundwater withdrawals probably match that 82.6 billion gpd figure, or even exceed it a bit due to population growth. There are almost 17 million more Americans now than 2005.