Groundwater Definition: Management ACT and Implementation

Nearly 95% of the nation’s freshwater resources come from groundwater. It may rise to the surface and contribute to filling rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and wetlands, or it may remain underground for hundreds of thousands of years.

Additionally, groundwater can be drawn from a well or emerge at the surface as a spring.

These are two typical methods by which we obtain groundwater for drinking. Our municipal, household and agricultural water supplies comprise around 50% ground water.

Groundwater Definition 

When rain falls on the earth, part of it hydrates the soil, and some travel down the land surface to lakes, rivers, and streams. While part of this water evaporates and returns to the air, a portion is absorbed by the plants. A portion of the water also percolates into the ground, travels through the unsaturated zone, and eventually reaches the water level, an imaginary surface where the saturated ground begins.

Water found underground in saturated areas below the ground’s surface is known as groundwater.

The simplest definition of ground water is water below the earth’s surface.

Or the definition of groundwater can also be water found in underground streams and aquifers under the earth’s surface.

A geological formation or a portion called an aquifer comprises a porous layer that may store or produce large amounts of water. Poorly consolidated sands and gravels, porous sedimentary rocks like sandstones or limestones, fractured volcanic and metamorphic rocks, etc., are only a few of the numerous materials that can make aquifers.

Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

Beginning on January 1, 2015, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) dramatically alters how California manages its groundwater basins. Before SGMA, no legal framework was in place to enable sustainable management of the state’s ground water resources, except for a few localities where county ordinances or special laws had been implemented. Most of the time, determining the entitlement of basin users through pricey and drawn-out basin arbitrations was the most effective approach to “control” ground water extractions.

The goal of SGMA is to give locally elected bodies the capacity to manage groundwater at the local scale for their long-term advantage. The act requires municipal water districts, cities, or counties to undertake the function of groundwater regulators to establish regulatory plans to promote sustainable management of local ground water resources within specified time limits. The SGMA gives local regulators the authority they need to carry out their regulatory plans, including the authority to levy fines, demand pumping reductions, and construct groundwater replenishment projects to achieve ground water sustainability.

Allocating the burden of groundwater removal reductions and responsibilities for payments of pump assessments to support essential basin replenishing and other management objectives is likely to result in stakeholder disputes. Disputes will occur when local authorities’ management practices appear incompatible with groundwater rights demands. Suppose the local agencies fail to reach the benchmarks or other conditions imposed due to a lack of stakeholder consensus. In that case, the SGMA permits the state to interfere and enforce its plan for ensuring the sustainability of the localised ground water supply.

Timelines for implementation

When	Who	What
31st of January, 2015	Department of Water Resources (DWR)	Basins should be classified and prioritised as high, medium, low, or extremely low.
1st of January, 2016	DWR	Adopt basin boundary changes guidelines and accept local authorities’ readjustment proposals.
1st of April, 2016	Local water agencies or watermasters in adjudicated areas	Submit the final decision as well as the relevant report to DWR (report annually thereafter).
1st of June, 2016	DWR	Adopt regulations for assessing the sufficiency of Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) and coordination agreements with the Ground water Sustainability Agency (GSA).
31st of December, 2016	DWR	Publication of a study calculating the amount of water available for groundwater replenishment.
1st of January, 2017	DWR	Publication of best management techniques for groundwater sustainability
By June 30, 2017,	Local agencies	Develop GSAs.
After July 1, 2017,	State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB).	Declare basins as probationary if no GSAs have been created.
After July 1, 2017	Groundwater users in probationary basins.	Adopt GSPs and begin managing basins by GSPs.
31st of January, 2020	GSAs in other medium- and high-priority basins.	Annual groundwater extraction reports must be filed with the SWRCB by December 15 of each year.
After January 31, 2022	SWRCB	Declare basins to be probationary if GSPs have not been implemented in other medium- and high-priority basins.
After January 31, 2025,	SWRCB	Declare basins are hazardous if GSPs are insufficient or are not being implemented, and extractions result in severe depletions of linked surface waters.
After January 31, 2040,	GSAs (in medium- and high-priority basins in critical overdraft)	Meet groundwater sustainability targets. (On a demonstration of good cause, the DWR may grant two five-year extensions.)
After January 31, 2042,	GSAs (in other medium- and high-priority basins)	Meet groundwater sustainability targets (DWR may issue two five-year extensions if good reason is demonstrated.)

National Groundwater Association

• Slogan

The industry leader for groundwater and its professionals

• Member value proposition

The National groundwater association provides our members with the tools and information they need to build successful enterprises and professions.

• Date of establishment

1948 (as National Water Well Association; name changed in 1991)

• Mission

NGWA is an organisation of groundwater professionals working together to increase ground water understanding and the success of its members via outreach and education advocacy, collaboration and information exchange, and professional practice advancement.

• Vision

NGWA’s vision is to be the foremost groundwater group advocating for responsible water development, management, and usage.

Goals

• NGWA and its members will employ their excellent scientific and technical expertise, knowledge, and resources to drive innovation, model best practices, and enhance the groundwater industry’s business climate.
• NGWA will be a trustworthy and valuable resource on important and relevant problems affecting the groundwater sector and public access to safe, sustainable groundwater.
• The engagement of all groundwater experts will help our community develop and flourish.
• The public will have confidence in the availability of a sustainable ground water supply for household, municipal, industrial, ecological, and agricultural applications due to NGWA’s activities.

Values

• We think that NGWA as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
• We are committed to using groundwater in an educated, responsible, and sustainable manner.
• We are a professional community that values different points of view, as well as sharing and learning from experience and research.
• We are sensitive to the needs and interests of our members.

Honours

• Associations Advance America Award — Haiti Relief Efforts — American Society of Association Executives
• Achievement Award Technology — Drilling Cost Calculator — Ohio Society of Association Executives
• Associations Advance America Award — Well Disinfection Guide for Tsunami Relief — American Society of Association Executives
• Associations Advance America Award — Tote a Toy for a Kid Campaign, National Ground Water Research and Educational Foundation — American Society of Association Executives
• Associations Advance America Award — Groundwater Awareness Week — American Society of Association Executives
• Silver Award for Special Projects, website — Virtual Museum of Ground water History — Association TRENDS
• Numerous honours for NGWA periodicals

 Frequently Asked Questions

 1. What are the reasons for using groundwater as a water supply?

It is an excellent source of water for a variety of reasons, including

• It is frequently seen in places with limited surface water supplies.
• Groundwater is often of high quality and requires far less treatment than river water to be safe to drink. Pollutants are removed by the soil and rocks through which ground water travels.
• The quality does not vary greatly throughout the year, which is vital for the business.
• Because it responds slowly to fluctuations in rainfall, it remains available during the summer and during droughts when rivers and streams have dried up.
• It is used in many regions of Africa and the developing world because it is commonly located near settlements and does not necessitate the high expenditures associated with gathering, purifying, and piping surface water.
• It doesn’t require expensive reservoirs to store water before it is used.

 2. Why is it so difficult to clean up groundwater?

Cleaning up polluted groundwater takes longer than planned because ground water systems are intricate, and the toxins are undetectable to the human eye. This makes it more difficult to locate pollutants and build a treatment system that either eliminates the contaminants in the subsurface or transports them to the surface for cleaning. Most of the super funds long-term cleanup activities result from groundwater pollution.

3. What is the distinction between surface water and groundwater?

Water on the land’s surface in streams, ponds, marshes, lakes, or other fresh (not saline) sources is called surface water. It is water that occurs in the saturation zone of an aquifer or soil. Aside from location, one of the biggest distinctions between surface and ground water is that ground water travels far slower than surface water. This is because ground water suffers significantly greater friction as it passes through soil pores than surface water as it runs over the earth’s surface. Surface water is far more susceptible to contamination than groundwater. Filtration via the soil aids in the purification of ground water.