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by cmay07 on August 1st, 2006

cmay07

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On Long Island, wells that have produced clear, pure water served the community for decades. The quality of the water drawn from the well became salty. Why?

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  • by yoho05 reminds you to DYOH on August 2nd, 2006

    yoho05 reminds you to DYOH

    Okay at a guess this could be caused by:

    1. diversion of waste water away from septic beds and into municipal sewers (so that the water does not re-enter the groundwater supply and replenish the aquifers, but instead enters the ocean directly);

    2. overpumping (due to increased population, swimming pools, people taking more showers than they did generations ago, etc.) so that the level of the water in the well reaches below sea level where the water is salty;

    3. construction of infrastructure such as highways that alter the natural watercourses that used to replenish the aquifers; and/or

    4. global warming, with the increased temperatures causing more rapid evaporation of surface water (such as rain or streams/rivers) so that it re-enters the water cycle as water vapour rather than down through the ground into the wells.

    I am sure that there could be more causes, but these are just a few that I thought of.

    See here for a good picture showing salt water instrusion into the groundwater and well.
    http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/gwdepletion.html

    see also
    http://people.hofstra.edu/faculty/j_b_bennington/1cnotes/aquifers.html
    http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1186/html/gw_storage.html

    I hope this helps a little.

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