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- Info
Planning for groundwater protection
| Author: |
Page, William G., ed |
| Date: |
1987 |
| Periodical: |
Orlando, FL: Academic Press, Inc. |
| Abstract: |
This book describes selected groundwater contamination problems and the best available approaches for protecting groundwater. Our society has released large quantities of many pollutants including toxic contaminants into the environment. Many of these contaminants are harmful at even trace concentrations and have been found in our groundwater resources where they may be protected from the usual environmental degradation processes and where their movement is difficult to predict. Because of the slow movement of groundwater, its nonturbulent flow characteristics, its isolation from the atmosphere, and the very limited cost-effective removal or treatment options, contaminated groundwater is effectively lost as a source of drinking water for the foreseeable future. These factors make efforts for the protection of groundwater imperative. Every groundwater system is unique, as are the patterns of human activities that may cause contamination. Lists of approaches to protect groundwater are not too useful unless they are linked to the unique social, cultural, economic, and physical conditions in a community. This volume combines summary chapters that describe the background to groundwater contamination problems with detailed case studies. Some of the case studies document the discovery of serious groundwater contamination and the remedial and preventive actions taken in response to the resulting crisis. Other case studies describe preventive actions accomplished before serious groundwater contamination with toxic substances reached crisis proportions. All of the case studies describe how and why groundwater protection policies have been developed and tested in response to the local characteristics of the contamination threats, the physical environment, and the human environment. Individual chapters provide an overview of the problem, describe the hydrogeological framework for groundwater protection, review the health risks associated with groundwater contamination, describe the institutional frame work for groundwater protection in the United States, propose the data and organizational requirements for developing a local groundwater protection program, discuss technological approaches to removing contaminants, and present detailed descriptions of approaches designed to protect groundwater. The series of chapters presenting detailed case studies from around the country comprise approximately half of the book. These case studies have been carefully selected to present the most effective and innovative approaches in the United States from areas experiencing a wide variety of hydrogeological conditions and toxic contaminant source problems. These case studies of groundwater protection policies used within diverse contexts will provide important information that will be very useful in the selection of management methods that are most appropriate to the unique circumstances of any community. |
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