An armor plate of clay and shale that for thousands of years has prevented surface pollution from contaminating vast underground vaults of fresh water is being breached, alarming water scientists in Wisconsin and possibly affecting national water policy.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working on enacting new regulations to protect water purity of deep aquifers that are thousands of feet below ground and near-surface shallow aquifers. The new regulations likely will contain health standards based, in part, on the findings of the Wisconsin health study funded by the EPA, Borchardt said.
"More than half of the U.S. population relies on groundwater for its drinking water, and research shows that groundwater can become contaminated with waterborne infectious agents like viruses," he said. "Groundwater is perceived as being pure, but between 1991 and 2000, more than two-thirds of the 163 waterborne infectious disease outbreaks in the U.S. were attributed to groundwater contaminated by viral, bacterial and disease-producing agents."
Melissa Scanlan, executive director of Midwest Environmental Advocates, said the Madison study reinforces the idea that all water is connected.
"We now have a water management system that does not reflect science," she said. "We don't connect the two. The research shows that water is constantly in motion and shows the need for an integrated management system that looks at ground and surface water as interconnected, as pieces of the whole. Any other approach is missing the boat."
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=437452
Posted by Dave at June 18, 2006 04:53 PM