1.7.2.1 European Union Water Framework Directive
The Water Framework Directive (WFD) establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy is a far‐reaching piece of legislation governing water resources management and protection in the European Union (Council of the European Communities 2000). The Directive (2000/60/EC) was adopted in December 2000 and requires Member States to enforce appropriate measures to achieve good ecological and chemical status of all water bodies with a review of progress based on a six‐year cycle. The purpose of the Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters (estuaries), coastal waters and groundwater to prevent further deterioration of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands. In its implementation, the WFD requires an integrated approach to river basin management and promotes sustainable water use based on long‐term protection of available water resources. A specific purpose of the WFD is to ensure the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevent its further pollution.
Article 17 of the WFD required a proposal (2003/0210(COD)) from the Commission for a Groundwater Daughter Directive leading to the adoption of specific measures to prevent and control groundwater pollution and achieve good groundwater chemical status (Commission of the European Communities 2003). In addition, the proposal introduced measures for protecting groundwater from indirect pollution (discharges of pollutants into groundwater after percolation through the ground or subsoil). In the Groundwater Directive (Council of the European Union 2006), compliance with good chemical status is based on a comparison of monitoring data with quality standards existing in EU legislation on nitrates and plant protection and biocidal products which set threshold values (maximum permissible concentrations) in groundwater for a number of pollutants. With regard to pollutants that are not covered by EU legislation, the Directive (2006/118/EC) requires Member States to establish threshold values defined at the national, river basin or groundwater body levels, thus taking into account the great diversity of groundwater characteristics across the EU.
The Groundwater Directive sets out specific criteria for the identification of significant and sustained upward trends in pollutant concentrations, and for the definition of starting points for when action must be taken to reverse these trends. In this respect, significance is defined both on the basis of time series and environmental significance. Time series are periods of time during which a trend is detected through regular monitoring. Environmental significance describes the point at which the concentration of a pollutant starts to threaten to worsen the quality of groundwater. This point is set at 75% of the quality standard or the threshold value defined by Member States. Under the WFD, a comprehensive programme of measures to prevent or limit pollution of water, including groundwater, became operational. Monitoring results obtained through the application of the Groundwater Directive are used to design the measures to prevent or limit pollution of groundwater.
1.7.3 Groundwater abstraction in North America
A similar picture emerges of the importance of groundwater for the population of North America. In Canada, almost nine million people, or 30% of the population, rely on groundwater for domestic use (Government of Canada 2021). Approximately two‐thirds of these users live in rural areas where groundwater is a reliable and cheap water supply that can be conveniently abstracted close to the point of use. The remaining groundwater users are located primarily in smaller municipalities where groundwater provides the primary source for their water supply systems. For example, 100% of the population of Prince Edward Island and over 60% of the population of New Brunswick rely on groundwater for domestic supplies. In Ontario, a province where groundwater is also used predominantly for supplying municipalities, 29% of the population is reliant on groundwater. Furthermore, the predominant use of groundwater varies by province. In Ontario, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and the Yukon, the largest users of groundwater are municipalities; in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the main users are in the agricultural sector for livestock watering; in British Columbia, Quebec and the Northwest Territories, the principal users are in the industrial sector; and in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, the predominant use is for rural domestic supplies. Prince Edward Island is almost totally dependent on groundwater for all its uses.
Fig. 1.12 Trends in water abstractions (fresh and saline) by water use category and total (fresh and saline) abstractions in the United States from 1960 to 2000 (Solley et al. 1998 and Hutson et al. 2004).
(Sources: Adapted from Solley, W.B., Pierce, R.R. and Perlman, H.A. (1998) Estimated use of water in the United States in 1995. United States Geological Survey Circular 1200, 71 pp; Hutson, S.S., Barber, N.L., Kenny, J.F. et al. (2004) Estimated use of water in the United States in 2000. United States Geological Survey Circular 1268, 46 pp.)
The abstraction of fresh and saline water in the United States from 1960 to 2000 as reported by Solley et al. (1998) and Hutson et al. (2004) is shown in Fig. 1.12. The estimated total abstraction for 1995 is 1522 × 106 m3 day−1 for all offstream uses (all uses except water used instream for hydroelectric power generation) and is 10% less than the 1980 peak estimate. This total has varied by less than 3% since 1985. In 2000, the estimated total water use in the United States is 1544 × 106 m3 day−1. Estimates of abstraction by source indicate that during 1995, total fresh surface water abstractions were 996 × 106 m3 day−1 and total groundwater abstractions were 293 × 106 m3 day−1 (or 23% of the combined freshwater abstractions). The respective figures for 2000 are 991 × 106 m3 day−1 and 316 × 106 m3 day−1, with 24% of freshwater abstractions from groundwater.
Total water abstraction for public water supply in the United States in 2000 is estimated to have been 163 × 106 m3 day−1, an 8% increase since 1995. This increase compares with a 7% growth in the population for the same period. Per capita public water supply use increased from about 678 L day−1 in 1995 to 683 L day−1 in 2000, but is still less than the per capita consumption of 696 L day−1 recorded for 1990.
The two largest water use categories in 2000 were cooling water for thermoelectric power generation (738 × 106 m3 day−1 of fresh and saline water) and irrigation (518 × 106 m3 day−1 of freshwater). Of these two categories, irrigation accounts for the greater abstraction of freshwater. The area of irrigated land increased nearly 7% between 1995 and 2000 with an increase in freshwater abstraction of 2% for this water use category. The area irrigated with sprinkler and micro‐irrigation systems
