Over 50% of the United States population depends on groundwater for drinking

water. Groundwater is also one of our most important sources of water for
irrigation. Unfortunately, groundwater is susceptible to pollutants.
Groundwater contamination occurs when man-made products such as gasoline,
oil, road salts and chemicals get into the groundwater and cause it to become
unsafe and unfit for human use.
Materials from the land’s surface can move through the soil and end up in the
groundwater. For example, pesticides and fertilizers can find their way into
groundwater supplies over time. Road salt, toxic substances from mining sites,
and used motor oil also may seep into groundwater. In addition, it is possible for
untreated waste from septic tanks and toxic chemicals from underground storage
tanks and leaky landfills to contaminate groundwater.

Forms of ground water contamination

pollutants are released to the ground and make their way into groundwater. This
type of water pollution can also occur naturally due to the presence of a minor
and unwanted constituent, contaminant, or impurity in the groundwater, in which
case it is more likely referred to as contamination rather than pollution.
Groundwater pollution can occur from on-site sanitation systems, landfill
leachate, effluent from wastewater treatment plants, leaking sewers, petrol filling
stations, hydraulic fracturing (fracking) or from over application of fertilizers in
agriculture. Pollution (or contamination) can also occur from naturally occurring
contaminants, such as arsenic or fluoride.[1] Using polluted groundwater causes
hazards to public health through poisoning or the spread of disease (water-borne
diseases).

The pollutant often creates a contaminant plume within an aquifer. Movement of

water and dispersion within the aquifer spreads the pollutant over a wider area.
Its advancing boundary, often called a plume edge, can intersect with
groundwater wells and surface water, such as seeps and springs, making the
water supplies unsafe for humans and wildlife. The movement of the plume,
called a plume front, may be analyzed through a hydrological transport model or
groundwater model. Analysis of groundwater pollution may focus on soil
characteristics and site geology, hydrogeology, hydrology, and the nature of the
contaminants. Different mechanisms have influence on the transport of
pollutants, e.g. diffusion, adsorption, precipitation, decay, in the groundwater

Sources of Groundwater Contamination

Tap water sometimes gets contaminated with germs and chemicals at high
enough levels to make you sick. Learn how public water and private wells get
contaminated and how to find out if your water has unsafe levels of germs or
chemicals.
water. However, sometimes unsafe levels of harmful germs and chemicals
contaminate public drinking water. The germs and chemicals can get in the water
at its source (for example, ground water or water from lakes or rivers) or while
water is traveling through the distribution system, after the water treatment
plant has already removed germs and chemicals from source water.

EPA requires water utilities to test for and address many germs and chemicals in
their drinking water systems. Water utilities are required to tell customers about
testing for contaminants and whether they found any unsafe levels of chemicals
or germs in the water. Customers are notified through notices of violations and
drinking water advisories. Water utilities must also provide their customers with
an annual drinking water quality report called the Consumer Confidence Report.
Drinking Water
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Water Contamination and Diseases
Tap water sometimes gets contaminated with germs and chemicals at high
enough levels to make you sick. Learn how public water and private wells get
contaminated and how to find out if your water has unsafe levels of germs or
chemicals.

Public water is regulated but can sometimes get contaminated

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates drinking water quality
in public water systems and sets limits for germs and chemicals in water.
However, sometimes unsafe levels of harmful germs and chemicals contaminate
public drinking water. The germs and chemicals can get in the water at its source
(for example, ground water or water from lakes or rivers) or while water is
traveling through the distribution system, after the water treatment plant has
already removed germs and chemicals from source water.

EPA requires water utilities to test for and address many germs and chemicals in
their drinking water systems. Water utilities are required to tell customers about
testing for contaminants and whether they found any unsafe levels of chemicals
or germs in the water. Customers are notified through notices of violations and
drinking water advisories. Water utilities must also provide their customers with
an annual drinking water quality report called the Consumer Confidence Report.

Water transport
The transport of pollutants in water can occur under particulate or dissolved
forms, either in surface or groundwaters. In surface waters, soil particles can be
introduced in streams and move under particulate form downstream (bed-load
transport) by rolling, sliding, and saltation and further deposited downstream.
This transport depends on flow velocity, turbulence, and grain size, shape, and
density. In groundwaters, particulate transport is not so expressive and occurs for
very small grain size particles.
The dissolved transport in waters is very important since this is highly associated
with more available forms of pollutants of greater environmental concern. In
addition, by this way pollutants can more easily reach other sites or
environmental compartments way from the source. Primarily, this involves
leaching processes, i.e., a process by which pollutants are released from solid
phase into the aqueous phase under the influence of dissolution and desorption
of pollutants from their support-phases. As mentioned above, this is dependent
on several factors, such as, soil pH, redox conditions, biotic action, and the
amount of water percolating the soil, which will carried out the pollutants to
surface or groundwater repositories. The aerobic conditions of surface waters and
the anaerobic conditions of groundwaters may have a great influence in the
dissolved transport, which may result in the precipitation of pollutants by changes
in redox state.

Groundwater remediation
Groundwater remediation is the process that is used to treat polluted
groundwater by removing the pollutants or converting them into harmless
products. Groundwater is water present below the ground surface that saturates
the pore space in the subsurface. Globally, between 25 per cent and 40 per cent
of the world's drinking water is drawn from boreholes and dug wells.[1]
Groundwater is also used by farmers to irrigate crops and by industries to
produce everyday goods. Most groundwater is clean, but groundwater can
become polluted, or contaminated as a result of human activities or as a result of
natural conditions.

The many and diverse activities of humans produce innumerable waste materials
and by-products. Historically, the disposal of such waste have not been subject to
many regulatory controls. Consequently, waste materials have often been
disposed of or stored on land surfaces where they percolate into the underlying
groundwater. As a result, the contaminated groundwater is unsuitable for use.
Current practices can still impact groundwater, such as the over application of
fertilizer or pesticides, spills from industrial operations, infiltration from urban
runoff, and leaking from landfills. Using contaminated groundwater causes
hazards to public health through poisoning or the spread of disease, and the
practice of groundwater remediation has been developed to address these issues.
Contaminants found in groundwater cover a broad range of physical, inorganic
chemical, organic chemical, bacteriological, and radioactive parameters.
Pollutants and contaminants can be removed from groundwater by applying
various techniques, thereby bringing the water to a standard that is
commensurate with various intended uses.

Seawater intrusion
Seawater intrusion is an increasingly widespread problem in coastal aquifers
caused by climate changes –sea-level rise, extreme phenomena like flooding and
droughts– and groundwater depletion near to the coastline. To evaluate and
mitigate the environmental risks of this phenomenon it is necessary to
characterize the coastal aquifer and the salt intrusion. Geophysical methods are
the most appropriate tool to address these researches. Among all geophysical
techniques, electrical methods are able to detect seawater intrusions due to the
high resistivity contrast between saltwater, freshwater and geological layers. The
combination of two or more geophysical methods is recommended and they are
more efficient when both data are inverted jointly because the final model
encompasses the physical properties measured for each methods. In this
investigation, joint inversion of vertical electric and time domain soundings has
been performed to examine seawater intrusion in an area within the Ferragudo-
Albufeira aquifer system (Algarve, South of Portugal). For this purpose two
profiles combining electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and time domain
electromagnetic (TDEM) methods were measured and the results were compared
with the information obtained from exploration drilling. Three different inversions
have been carried out: single inversion of the ERT and TDEM data, 1D joint
inversion and quasi-2D joint inversion. Single inversion results identify seawater
intrusion, although the sedimentary layers detected in exploration drilling were
not well differentiated. The models obtained with 1D joint inversion improve the
previous inversion due to better detection of sedimentary layer and the seawater
intrusion appear to be better defined. Finally, the quasi-2D joint inversion reveals
a more realistic shape of the seawater intrusion and it is able to distinguish more
sedimentary layers recognised in the exploration drilling. This study demonstrates
that the quasi-2D joint inversion improves the previous inversions methods
making it a powerful tool applicable to different research areas.
As sea levels rise along the coasts, saltwater can move onto the land. Known as
saltwater intrusion, this occurs when storm surges or high tides overtop areas low
in elevation. It also occurs when saltwater infiltrates freshwater aquifers and
raises the groundwater table below the soil surface.
Causes of the seawater intrusion phenomenon
excessive pumping in coastal well

Depth of interface= 40H .... Where H is the ground water level (G.W.L) .