Approved by the Energy, Environment, and Water Policy Committee on February 17, 2022
Approved by the Public Policy Committee on April 27, 2022
Adopted by the Board of Direction on July 22, 2022
Policy
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) supports and encourages a nationally coordinated effort to provide sustainable management of the nation's groundwater resources to ensure adequate supplies, protect the environment, and safeguard public health by:
- Supporting national and international groundwater data gathering activities through traditional, satellite, and other methods.
- Establishing and enforcing regulations for:
- Management of groundwater resources by federal, state, tribal, regional, and local programs, including administration of regional and state water rights.
- Protection of groundwaters from depletion, and degradation, and seawater intrusion.
- Remediation of areas of known groundwater contamination.
- Consideration of groundwater in water resource management activities, including recharge.
- Coordinating international, federal, state, tribal, regional, and local programs for:
- Dissemination of collected data.
- Research on data collection methodologies.
- Research on groundwater quantity, movement, and quality.
- Providing technical assistance in groundwater management.
Issue
Groundwater is used for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes and is the source of the base environmental flow and water quality of rivers and streams in the United States (U.S.). The U.S. Geological Survey's Summary of Estimated Water Use in the United States in 2015 calculated fresh groundwater withdrawals in the U.S. as 82.3 billion gal/day, an 8% increase since 2010. The NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) collected satellite data on international groundwater aquifers from 2003 through 2017. Using some of the early GRACE data, a University of California-Irvine led study examined 37 of the Earth's largest aquifers and found that water storage in 21 of the 37 aquifers had declined. This includes the California Central Valley Aquifer System and the multi-state, international Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains Aquifer. Many groundwater basins have historically been ineffectively managed, resulting in the supply being seriously depleted, degraded or both, with damages extending across political boundaries. This is particularly true with respect to basins used as sources of irrigation waters. Groundwater depletion reduces the available water supply, can reduce base flow, is linked to surface subsidence, and can induce seawater intrusion. Degradation of groundwater quality has damaged public health and welfare, the economy, and the overall environment. Sources of degradation include over extraction, improper industrial and solid waste disposal, leaky underground and above ground storage tanks, leaky septic tanks, infiltration of pesticides, fertilizers, and hazardous chemicals, and improperly abandoned wells.
Both groundwater and surface water must be protected from human caused contamination or over utilization. It is particularly essential that groundwater management operates within the appropriate legal and institutional framework and be founded on accurate data.
Rationale
It is essential that ASCE promote improvement in the management of the nation's groundwater resources. The public health and welfare, including an adequate supply of water and the need to minimize adverse environmental impacts, demands the use of Best Management Practices (BMPs). These BMPs include wise utilization concepts, coordinated management of ground and surface supplies, accountability for degradation of quality and reduction in quantity, review of potential environmental concerns, and application of the principles of sustainable development.
ASCE Policy Statement 243
First Approved in 1977