Policy statement 243 - Groundwater management

Approved by the Energy, Environment, and Water Policy Committee on December 19, 2024 
Approved by the Public Policy and Practice Committee on March 28, 2025
Adopted by the Board of Direction on July 10, 2025

Policy

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) supports and encourages a coordinated effort to provide sustainable management of groundwater resources to ensure adequate supplies, protect the environment, and safeguard public health by:

• Supporting increased national and international groundwater data gathering activities through traditional, satellite, and other methods.
  
• Advocating for an integrated approach to water management that considers groundwater in the context of the entire water cycle, including stormwater and surface water interactions.
  
• Establishing and enforcing regulations for:
  o Management of groundwater resources by federal, state, tribal, regional, and local programs. 
  o Protection of groundwaters from depletion, degradation, and seawater intrusion.
  o Remediation of areas of known groundwater contamination.
  o Consideration of groundwater in water resource management activities, including recharge.
  
• Coordinating international, federal, state, tribal, regional, and local programs for: 
  o Dissemination of collected data.
  o Research on data collection methodologies.
  o Research on groundwater quantity, movement, and quality.
  o Providing technical assistance in groundwater management.

Issue

Groundwater is used for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes and is the source of the base environmental flow and water quality of rivers and streams in the United States (U.S.). The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Summary of Estimated Water Use in the United States in 2015 calculated fresh groundwater withdrawals in the U.S. as 82.3 billion gal/day, an 8% increase since 2010. According to USGS, over one third of the U.S. population relies on groundwater as a drinking water source. The NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) collected satellite data on international groundwater aquifers from 2003 through 2017. Using some of the early GRACE data, a University of California-Irvine led study examined 37 of the Earth's largest aquifers and found that water storage in 21 of the 37 aquifers had declined. This includes the California Central Valley Aquifer System and the multi-state, international Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains Aquifer. 

Many groundwater basins have historically been subjected to fragmented governance and/or ineffectively managed. This results in the supply being seriously depleted or degraded, with damage extending across political boundaries. This is particularly true with respect to basins used as sources of irrigation waters. Groundwater depletion reduces the available water supply, can reduce base flow, is linked to surface subsidence, and can induce seawater intrusion. Degradation of groundwater quality has damaged public health and welfare, the economy, and the overall environment. Sources of degradation include over extraction, improper industrial and solid waste disposal, leaky underground and above ground storage tanks, leaky septic tanks, infiltration of pesticides, fertilizers, and hazardous chemicals, and improperly abandoned wells. Inadequate monitoring and emerging contaminants further threaten groundwater protection. 

Both groundwater and surface water must be protected from human caused contamination and overutilization. It is particularly essential that groundwater management operates within the appropriate legal and institutional framework and be founded on accurate data.

Rationale

It is essential that ASCE promote improvement in the management of the nation's groundwater resources. The public health and welfare, including an adequate, resilient, and sustainable supply of water and the need to minimize adverse environmental impacts, demand the use of Best Management Practices (BMPs). These BMPs include wise utilization concepts, coordinated management of ground and surface supplies, accountability for degradation of quality and reduction in quantity, review of potential environmental concerns, and application of the principles of sustainable development.

This has worldwide applications 
ASCE Policy Statement 243 
First Approved in 1977