A new report urges building the National
Ground Water Monitoring Network to help ensure America’s critical need for
sufficient water supplies.Critical Needs for the Twenty-first
Century: The Role of Geosciencesrecently was released by the
American Geosciences Institute. Providing sufficient supplies of water is one
of eight critical needs identified in the report.
Within that need, the report
specifically recommends, “Monitoring of surface and subsurface water quantity
and quality with a focus on enhancing the National Streamflow Information
Program and building the National Groundwater [sic] Monitoring Network.”
In the United States, 78 percent of
community water systems, nearly all of rural America’s private household water
wells and 42 percent of agricultural irrigation water are supplied by ground water.
While the nation’s people, food supply, economy and ecosystems depend on ground
water, no systematic nationwide monitoring network is in place to measure what
is currently available and how ground water levels and quality may be changing
over time.
As a long-time advocate of the National
Ground Water Monitoring Network, the National Ground Water Association (NGWA)
applauds the new report.
“As with any valuable natural resource,
our ground water reserves must be monitored to assist in planning and
minimizing potential impacts from shortages or supply disruptions,” says NGWA government
affairs director Christine Reimer. “Just as one cannot effectively oversee the
nation’s economy without key data, one cannot adequately address the nation’s
food, energy, economic and drinking water security without understanding the
extent, availability and sustainability of the critical commodity - ground water.”
Congress has authorized a national
ground water monitoring network, and proponents are seeking federal funding to
build it.
Building of National Ground Water Monitoring Network Encouraged
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