Water: Ground Water
Celebrate National Ground Water Awareness Week!
March 11-17, 2012
EPA joins our partners in celebrating National Ground Water Awareness Week, March 11-17, 2012. Ground water flows slowly underground through pore spaces between sand, gravel, and cracks in rock, in underground formations called aquifers. These aquifers supply water that is used for sources for drinking water, agriculture, feeds our lakes, and recharges our streams and rivers.
More than 90 percent of all public drinking water systems rely on ground water to supply the population with drinking water. And millions of Americans rely on ground water from aquifers to supply their private wells.
National Ground Water Awareness Week was launched thirteen years ago by the National Ground Water Association. Its purpose is to educate the public about the importance of groundwater and water well stewardship.
Today, Ground Water Awareness Week is a well-recognized national event. In 2011, for instance, it garnered exposure for groundwater and water well stewardship messages on more than 300 Web and social media sites worldwide. Its take-home message is simple: There is something every person can do to preserve and protect groundwater for human and environmental needs.
The following links can help you learn to protect this vital resource.
Test your well every year.
If your family gets drinking water from a private well, do you know if your water is safe to drink? What health risks could you and your family face? Where can you go for help or advice? This Web site will help answer these questions:
Protect underground sources of drinking water.
The “Citizen's Guide to Ground Water Protection” encourages citizens to a take an active and positive role in protecting their community's ground water supplies.
- Citizen's Guide to Ground Water Protection PDF (34 pp , 2M, About PDF)
Learn about EPA’s program to protect public health by preventing injection wells, particularly large capacity septic systems and shallow drainage wells, from contaminating underground sources of drinking water.
Build your own aquifer in a cup.
Teachers and parents – help kids visualize ground water through this classroom activity. Our Web page provides step-by-step instruction.
Read about EPA’s Ground Water Rule.
The purpose of the rule is to provide for increased protection against microbial pathogens in public water systems that use ground water sources.
Visit our partners’ links 
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Parasitic Diseases, Private Well Resources
- Ground Water Protection Council’s Ground Water Report to the Nation: A Call to Action
- National Ground Water Association
- Wellowner.org
- Water Systems Council and its wellcare® Hotline (888) 395-1033
- American Ground Water Trust