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When groundwater is extracted from an aquifer, a cone of depression is created around the well.As the drafting of water continues, the cone increases in radius. Extracting too much water (overdrafting) can lead to negative impacts such as a drop of the water table, land subsidence, and loss of surface water reaching the streams.
Groundwater pumping has been causing the land to sink at a record pace in California's San Joaquin Valley. New research suggests ways of addressing the problem.
Groundwater pollution (also called groundwater contamination) occurs when pollutants are released to the ground and make their way into groundwater.This type of water pollution can also occur naturally due to the presence of a minor and unwanted constituent, contaminant, or impurity in the groundwater, in which case it is more likely referred to as contamination rather than pollution.
[4] [11] The California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 was the first to specify how to manage groundwater in a way that would not harm or endanger future access to clean groundwater. [2] Before this act, no regulations governed groundwater management other than the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act. These acts ...
The state groundwater law, which was signed nearly 10 years ago, requires local agencies in many areas to develop groundwater plans and curb overpumping by 2040.
California regulators say groundwater plans are inadequate in six areas of the San Joaquin Valley. The move triggers state intervention to bolster regulation.
These areas are now subject to severe flooding due to subsidence associated with groundwater removal. [5] [6] Total subsidence can usually be determined by ground-surface elevation surveys and GPS measurements. Potential impact on the aquifers and other resulting geohazards such as fissures can be assessed through long-term hydrologic studies ...
In addition to widely recognized environmental consequences, groundwater depletion also adversely impacts the long-term sustainability of groundwater supplies to help meet the Nation’s water needs." [29] An example of a significant and sustainable carbonate aquifer is the Edwards Aquifer [31] in central Texas.