Groundwater Withdrawal Research Paper

Groundwater Withdrawal and Subsidence

Introduction

Groundwater is the lifeline to human society. Within the United States, many communities rely solely on groundwater resources for public usage and agriculture and without it would not survive. Unfortunately, the groundwater resources that have sustained the growth of the modern human population are becoming increasingly scarce. This has caused scientists and Politicians to pay attention to what is causing this water resource to recede at such an accelerated pace and what impact humans are having on this problem.

Groundwater and its Importance To understand the issue that society is facing regarding groundwater withdrawal, it is first important to understand exactly what groundwater is and why it is a vital resource to society. Groundwater is freshwater that is stored and transported beneath the earth's surface within aquifers which are like a basin made up of a saturated layer of permeable rocks, such as gravel, sand, or even larger structures like hollowed

As rocks and sediments are compacted through subsidence, they become less permeable, so water cannot saturate or move through them leading to the destruction of the aquifer basin which contains the water below ground. This means that after groundwater is pumped and depleted, there is no pore space left within the container for water to accumulate in and recharge (Perlman, 2015). With groundwater being such a vital resource in areas such as California, aquifer destruction could cause extreme water scarcity. Moreover, as some rural Californians are already experiencing, reduction in aquifer storage capacity causes wells to dry up removing their only source of water. Though in some cases wells can be dug deeper to provide water, it is extraordinarily expensive and as more subsidence and aquifer destruction continues, this option will become less