Rural Community Assistance Partnership

Practical solutions for improving rural communities
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ground water

The (UK) Guardian: A Texan tragedy: ample oil, no water

Posted Mon, 2013/08/19 - 9:40am by RCAP

Excerpts from an Aug. 11 article in the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper about communities in Texas:

"Three years of drought, decades of overuse and now the oil industry's outsize demands on water for fracking are running down reservoirs and underground aquifers. And climate change is making things worse."

"'Because when the water is gone. That's it. We're gone.'"

ProPublica: Poisoning the well: How the Feds let industry pollute the nation's underground water supply

Posted Wed, 2012/12/12 - 3:09pm by RCAP

by Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica, Dec. 11, 2012

Federal officials have given energy and mining companies permission to pollute aquifers in more than 1,500 places across the country, releasing toxic material into underground reservoirs that help supply more than half of the nation's drinking water.

In many cases, the Environmental Protection Agency has granted these so-called aquifer exemptions in Western states now stricken by drought and increasingly desperate for water.

Protecting groundwater protects public health, the environment

Posted Thu, 2012/09/06 - 9:21am by RCAP

RCAP encourages the public to protect public health and the health of the environment by protecting groundwater beginning on Protect Your Groundwater Day, Sept. 11.

In the United States, 88 million Americans rely on groundwater-supplied community water systems, while another 42 million Americans rely on individual household water wells.