National Ground Water Awareness Week, March 8-14, 2009

EPA joins our partners in celebrating National Ground Water Awareness Week, March 8-14. 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 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.

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:

Private Drinking Water Wells

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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 septic systems and shallow drainage wells, from contaminating underground sources of drinking water.