GROUNDWATER ETHICS

The usual objective in groundwater management is to develop groundwater resources for beneficial use by humans. Concepts such as sustainability and safe yield are invoked to impose limits to use so that the resource is preserved for future generations of humans. We also aim to avoid economically and/or esthetically inconvenient consequences of over use such as groundwater depletion and adverse changes in groundwater quality. But what is meant by ethical use of groundwater? One interpretation of a groundwater ethic is the beneficial and intensive use of groundwater under well designed and controlled conditions (Lamas 2004, Water and Ethics: Use of Groundwater, UNESCO, New York, 33 p). Indeed, development of groundwater is not possible without creating a cone of depression and thereby removing water from storage. Hence, depletion of some fraction of the groundwater resource is not necessarily bad and in fact is necessary. While we attempt “well designed and controlled” usage, the focus in most groundwater management decisions is on human needs and utilizing the resource.

Environmental ethics, however, is built around the concept of “The Land Ethic”, which focuses on preservation of “the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community” (Leopold 1949, The Sand County Almanac, Oxford University Press). The Land Ethic extends the notion of community to include not only humans but also “the land” which is defined to include animals and plants as well as the inanimate components of the environment such as soil, rocks, and water. Thus, an ethic defined under the Land Ethic requires a shift in focus from the human good to the good of “ the land” including groundwater. The Land Ethic implies that groundwater, for example, should exist, at least in some places, in a natural state. In this paper, selected groundwater management decisions and issues are examined in the context of a groundwater ethic based on the Land Ethic.