Groundwater and Aquifers

Importance of Groundwater in my Community, Canada, and the World:

Community: The province of British Colombia has 28.5% of the population using groundwater for domestic purposes.
Canada: 8.9 million or 30.3% of the population rely on groundwater for domestic use.
The World: 20% of the world's fresh water supply.

Artesian Well:

A contained aquifer containing groundwater that will flow upwards through an artesian well without the need of any pumping. An aquifer is a layer of soft rock that absorbs water. The water is under extreme pressure so when an artesian well is built then it means that the pressure will force the water to flow up instead of down, defying gravity.

Man's Impact on Groundwater and Aquifers:

Ogallala Aquifer: Covering an area of 450 000 square km, it is one of the world's largest aquifers, located in the Great Plains of the US. It yields about 30% of the groundwater used for irrigation of farms, as well as 82% of the water used for drinking in the area.
Urban Water Cycle: A project with countries around the North Sea working to develop solutions to their water problems. Holland, Germany, England, and Denmark all share their ideas on how they sustain and provide water for their countries, and together by sharing their ideas and seeing what has been working and not working they are developing the best way to sustain and use the water we have in the world.
Walkerton, Ontario: In May 2008 the water supply of Walkerton, Ontario was contaminated with the E.coli bacteria from farm run off into an adjacent well. Half of the population of the small town of 5000 became ill from the water, and 7 died due to the fact that the city did not admit to the problem earlier on.
Impacts in Canada: Things such as septic systems, leaky tanks or pipes, spills of chemicals, landfills, livestock waste, graveyards, and chemicals used on farms all have an impact on the safety of the ground water in Canada. Some contamination can be so bad that the groundwater can be completely unusable, which obviously has a large impact on Canada seeing that many people rely on it for their water needs.