National Groundwater Awareness Week

Who Protects My Groundwater?

So far we’ve covered what groundwater is, how it interacts with other components of the hydrologic cycle, its importance as a resource, and some of the many threats to its quality and quantity.

But who’s in charge? Who protects our groundwater from contaminants? Who oversees remediation for contaminated groundwater? Who ensures that industry and private uses to do not threaten this resource as a common good? Who plans for future water needs?

The answer: state and local government.

Currently, there is no federal program to oversee groundwater protection. However, each state government has an agency or multiple agencies that are charged with protecting a piece of the groundwater “pie”.

State and local agencies protect groundwater in a variety of ways through several programs including:

• Public water supply
  ° By regulating the quality of the water we drink

• Source Water Protection
  ° By protecting water from streams, rivers, lakes, or underground aquifers which is used to supply private wells and public drinking water

• Underground Injection Programs
  ° By regulating the disposal of waste streams in a way that ensures the protection of groundwater

• Underground Storage Tank Programs
  ° By detecting and preventing releases from underground storage tanks
• Groundwater Monitoring
  ° By monitoring for changes in groundwater quantity and quality
• Resource Management
  ° By regulating groundwater, oil, gas, and mineral recovery to ensure the protection of groundwater

For more information about the roles and responsibilities of the various state and local agencies that are members of the Texas Groundwater Protection Committee, see the Groundwater Protection Program Descriptions section of the Joint Report (https://www.tceq.texas.gov/publications/sfr/056).