POTENTIAL SOURCES OF GROUNDWATER

CONTAMINATION
Storage tanks
May contain gasoline, oil, chemicals, or other types of liquids and they
can either be above or below ground. There are estimated to be over
10 million storage tanks buried in the United States and over time the
tanks can corrode, crack and develop leaks. If the contaminants leak
out and get into the groundwater, serious contamination can occur.

Septic Systems

Onsite wastewater disposal systems used by homes, offices or other

buildings that are not connected to a city sewer system. Septic
systems are designed to slowly drain away human waste underground
at a slow, harmless rate. An improperly designed, located, constructed,
or maintained septic system can leak bacteria, viruses, household
chemicals, and other contaminants into the groundwater causing
serious problems.

Uncontrolled Hazardous Waste

In the U.S. today, there are thought to be over 20,000 known

abandoned and uncontrolled hazardous waste sites and the numbers
grow every year. Hazardous waste sites can lead to groundwater
contamination if there are barrels or other containers laying around
that are full of hazardous materials. If there is a leak, these
contaminants can eventually make their way down through the soil
and into the groundwater.

Landfills

Landfills are the places that our garbage is taken to be buried. Landfills
are supposed to have a protective bottom layer to prevent
contaminants from getting into the water. However, if there is no layer
or it is cracked, contaminants from the landfill (car battery acid, paint,
household cleaners, etc.) can make their way down into the
groundwater.

Chemicals and Road Salts

The widespread use of chemicals and road salts is another source of

potential groundwater contamination. Chemicals include products used
on lawns and farm fields to kill weeds and insects and to fertilize
plants, and other products used in homes and businesses. When it
 rains, these chemicals can seep into the ground and eventually into
the water. Road salts are used in the wintertime to put melt ice on
roads to keep cars from sliding around. When the ice melts, the salt
gets washed off the roads and eventually ends up in the water.
Atmospheric Contaminants

Since groundwater is part of the hydrologic cycle, contaminants in

other parts of the cycle, such as the atmosphere or bodies of surface
water, can eventually be transferred into our groundwater supplies.

Toll
Groundwater is disappearing fast from the world and India is among the worst hit, shows data
from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites.

Among the world's largest groundwater basins, the Indus Basin aquifer of India and Pakistan, which is a
source of fresh water for millions of people, is the second-most overstressed with no natural
replenishment to offset usage, said two new studies led by the University of California - Irvine (UCI), using
data from GRACE satellites.

About a third of the Earth's largest groundwater basins are being rapidly depleted by human consumption,
the studies said.

Groundwater aquifers are typically located in soils or deeper rock layers beneath the Earth's surface.

The most overburdened aquifers are in the world's driest areas, where populations draw heavily on
underground water. Climate change and population growth are expected to intensify the problem, the
researchers warned.

"What happens when a highly stressed aquifer is located in a region with socioeconomic or political
tensions that can't supplement declining water supplies fast enough?" asked Alexandra Richey, the lead
author on both studies, who conducted the research as a UCI doctoral student.

"We are trying to raise red flags now to pinpoint where active management today could protect future lives
and livelihoods," Richey said.

The Arabian Aquifer System, an important water source for more than 60 million people, is the most
overstressed in the world, the findings showed.

The studies are the first to comprehensively characterise global groundwater losses with data from space,
using readings generated by NASA's twin GRACE satellites.

GRACE measures dips and bumps in the Earth's gravity, which are affected by the mass of water.

In the first paper, researchers found that 13 of the planet's 37 largest aquifers studied between 2003 and
2013 were being depleted while receiving little to no recharge.
Eight were classified as "overstressed", with nearly no natural replenishment to offset usage.

Another five were found to be "extremely" or "highly" stressed, depending upon the level of replenishment
in each.

Those aquifers were still being depleted but had some water flowing back into them.
"Given how quickly we are consuming the world's groundwater reserves, we need a coordinated global
effort to determine how much is left," principal investigator Jay Famiglietti, who is also the senior water
scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California,