CASE HISTORIES OF GROUND-WATER MINING - EASTERN UNITED STATES

The demands for drinking water, water for industrial processes and applications, and the exploration and development of natural resources all increase at some portion to population growth, depending on geographic location. In addition, the requirements and projections for water supply needs have been heightened due to climatological conditions over the last several years and particularly in several southeastern states due to the drought condition during spring and summer 2007. The eastern US includes a wide variety of geologic, hydrologic, and environmental settings. Many geologic regions are the source of multiple resources -- abundant ground water, gas and oil, and economic rocks and minerals. In the development and use of these resources ground water is extracted, pumped, consumed, and sometimes reinjected to the aquifer or discharged to the local surface water system.

Case histories to be discussed include dewatering and saltwater intrusion as a result of drinking water and industrial water withdrawals in central Florida; impacts from ground-water withdrawal at surface and subsurface mines in areas of karst in Alabama; failure of a wastewater impoundment in proximity to public supply wells in a karst area in the Lehigh River Valley, central Pennsylvania; and a recent case ruling regarding a limestone quarry proposed in proximity to a research preserve of a local university and new and expanding subdivision developments.