Ground Water Essay

“When rain falls to the ground, the water does not stop moving. Some of it flows along the land surface to streams or lakes, some is used by plants. Some evaporates and returns to the atmosphere. And some seeps underground, into pores between sand, clay and rock formations called aquifers. Water moves through aquifers much like a glass of water poured onto a pile of sand.”(EPA, 2014) Human activities, whether purposefully or accidentally, such as farming, fracking, oil spills, chemical spills can all act like rain water and flow into and contaminate the aquifers which we rely on for clean drinking water.

Ground water, which comes from aquifers, is a vital resource which needs to be protected, conserved, and monitored to ensure it is safe and will not be depleted. Ground water is used for irrigation, commercial use, thermoelectric, livestock watering, domestic supply, mining, industrial, and public supply. According to a report the USGS published in 1998 for the 1995 water year which shows the national ground water use, 63% was used for irrigation, 1% for commercial, 1% for thermoelectric, 3% for domestic supply, 3% for mining, 5% for industrial, and 20% for public use. “Every state uses some amount of ground water. Nineteen states obtain more than 25% of their overall water supply from ground water. Ten states obtain more than 50% of their total water supply from ground water.”(EPA, 2014) After seeing these numbers it proves how important our ground water is to our everyday lives.

Around 20 percent of the earth’s dry surface is karst. The Midwestern and eastern U.S. is composed of about 40% karst landscape. In the U.S. there are approximately 40,000 known caves ranging in length anywhere from a few feet to a few hundred miles. ...

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...lopment, waste disposal, deforestation. Surface spills cause aquifers to become contaminated. Caves become destroyed by vandalism, quarrying, or construction. Development of krast landscapes is inevitable, because this is recognized; plans to reduce negative human impacts and promote sustainability have been put in place. The Karst Disturbance Index (KDI) which uses environmental indicators was created to measure qualitative and quantitative human impacts on karst landscapes. There is also the Karst Sustainable Index (KSI) which integrates relevant environmental, economic-resource use, and social indicators was specifically designed for the sustainability of karst environments. KSI is separated into three categories; Principal Domain, Social Domain, and Environmental Domain. Each of the three categories contains several indicators to determine the sustainability.