Groundwater Sustainability Principles and Practices

Groundwater, a basic life-sustaining and economic resource, must be managed locally through best practices of states and local governments and their residents and businesses recognizing the range of domestic, municipal, industrial, ecological, and agricultural uses it supports for their communities’ continued wellbeing.

Groundwater is the world’s most extracted raw material. A sustainable groundwater resource must provide for a range of needs including agricultural irrigation and livestock watering, domestic and industrial water supply, streamflow maintenance, support for ecosystems of shallow aquifers, streams and coastal waters. Groundwater in shallow aquifers or shallow zones of aquifers is vulnerable to contamination and groundwater mining from human activities.

Groundwater sustainability is defined as the development and use of groundwater resources in a manner that can be maintained for an indefinite time without causing unacceptable environmental, economic, or social consequences.

To mitigate unacceptable consequences, practices for maintaining sustainable groundwaters should incorporate reliance on natural processes; protection and remediation of groundwater sources; management of groundwater use within available capacity; abilities to recover in timely ways to unforeseen disruptions; regular re-assessment of alternative, life-cycle, and long-term costs; effects and resource management adjustments. Observations for sustainable groundwater will be offered and feedback from conferees sought.