An Introduction to Ground Water Hydrology

Introduction

Ground water is a plentiful and widely used natural resource in Maine. Not only do thousands of households obtain their potable water supply from private wells, but a large number of municipalities obtain at least some of their supply from ground water sources. Commercial and industrial businesses also use ground water, sometimes in large quantities, for processing, cooling, and other purposes.

As population and economic growth increase, the demands on ground water and the threat of ground water pollution will also increase. Individuals, municipalities, and other government agencies need to make, and are making, decisions about water supplies from contamination and depletion. To make thoughtful decisions, however, people need a basic knowledge of ground water as it occurs in Maine and New England.

This website contains information originally published in the first two chapters of the Ground Water Handbook for the State of Maine (Maine Geological Survey, 1987). The handbook was written to provide ground water information in a format that is both useful and interesting to the general and specialized reader.

The website is a general introduction to ground water geology, or hydrogeology. It begins with the basic concepts of the origin, occurrence, and movement of ground water, then expands from the ground water theory to discuss more practical aspects such as aquifers, springs, wells, and changes in ground water quantity and quality caused by nature and by man.

The last section of the website is a brief summary of ground water use, abundance, quality, and sources in Maine.

Introduction Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 References Links

Last updated on March 25, 2009

Contents

An Introduction to Ground Water Hydrology

Introduction