The Pros and Cons of Using Groundwater

We realize that extracting from groundwater has advantages as well as disadvantage, in order to provide advantages and disadvantages we first need to know what the meaning of groundwater. Groundwater which is known as aquifer is water that satiates the crevices and openings of rocks and residues that is positioned below the surface of the ground. A mask amount of the groundwater is protected because it is underground, therefore leaving it purely clean and exempt from the pollution on the earth. Now that the significance of groundwater has been stated, the advantages and disadvantages of extracting from it can be summarized (Kreifels, 2011).

There are several advantages of extracting groundwater such as it is good drinking water and beneficial for irrigation; it is use all year; it can be found anywhere; it can be renewable as long as it is not contaminated or over used and it is cost effective compared to most surface waters and water is not lost because of evaporation. The disadvantages are the cost is greater and there is impurity from deeper well; water streams are condensed into surface water; the imposition of saltwater mixing into drinking water distributes close to coastal regions; for years aquifers polluted groundwater; land is descending because groundwater is being over pumped and depletion of aquifer because of over withdrawing (Miller & Johnson, 2010).

Groundwater depletion is a problem in the US and the world because water is being extracted from groundwater as fast as they can replenish them. One reason in particular why depletion occur in the US is that the population has increased and is steadily growing, which causes groundwater to be over pumped. Some levels in the groundwat...

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...able amount of energy to keep the pump flowing. The third drawback of desalination is that a massive amount of salty wastewater is accumulated and must therefore for a place to reside. If the salty wastewater is dumped into coastal oceans, it could cause harm to the sea life as well as compromise food resources. Disposing it on the land is not an option either because the groundwater and surface water could become polluted (Miller & Johnson, 2010).

Reference

Kreifels, C. (fall, 2011). Keeping it clean together. Volume 26. Number 2. The Aquifer:

A publication of groundwater foundation.

Miller, T.G., & Spoolman, S.E. (2010). Environmental science. (13th Ed). Belmont, CA:

Cengage Learning.

Terrell, B.L & Johnson, P.N. (1999). Economic impact of the depletion of Ogallala aquifer:

A case study of the southern high plains of Texas.