Groundwater Urbanowice.docx

Groundwater aquifers of Urbanowice

Introduction What is groundwater? Groundwater starts as precipitation and the portion of the rain water that infiltrates beneath the ground's surface, either naturally or artificially, becomes groundwater. The remaining portion of the precipitation is used by plants, evaporates, or becomes surface water runoff which can either add to groundwater levels in other areas or be increased by groundwater outflows depending on the geology the surface water travels through. The amount of precipitation that gets absorbed and becomes groundwater depends on the soil type. Highly porous soils, such as sandy soils, absorb water much faster than soil such as clay which has very small pores. The saturated soil acts like a sponge and the area where groundwater is present, or saturated, in the soil is called an aquifer, which generally has a boundary defined as its basin. Groundwater basins are formed naturally over a period ranging from several years to more than a millennium in some geologies. Who uses groundwater? Groundwater is critical to the communities that are built on or near the aquifer, or the underground layer of water that fills cracks in the rock or sand that makes up the soil.

Aim of the research Knowing the groundwater level is important for several reasons, including understanding aquifer levels under static conditions and pumping conditions, determining how the levels interact with local surface water sources, and understanding how surface development has impacted the aquifer. In some areas reducing the water table level can have a great impact on the groundwater's quality. In coastal freshwater aquifers salt water intrusion can occur when the different densities of both the saltwater and fresh water allow the ocean water to intrude into the fresh water aquifer. Often coastal groundwater aquifers support large populations where the demand for groundwater withdrawals exceeds the fresh water recharge rate allowing salt water to make its way into the aquifer contaminating the water. Land development projects Surface development projects have a huge impact on the groundwater level. For example deforestation, drained wetlands, and urban development cause water to runoff much faster than it would normally. This leads to reduced charging of the underlying aquifer. In addition to the surface water interaction mentioned earlier additional concerns include the increased cost of water and land subsidence. The cost

of water increases as the depth of the water table increases due to costs associated with the energy required to lift the water further. Land subsidence, or sinking in, is caused by the loss of support underground. Groundwater extraction can cause subsidence by leaving a void where the water was and drying the soil allowing it to shrink and settle. As groundwater is continuously taken out of the soil the likelihood increases that the ground will settle to fill the empty spaces left behind. This settling can be the source of major damage to the local communities including cracks in foundations, walls, roads or potentially even sinkholes. Effective groundwater monitoring is the best way to protect the local community, ensure a dependable and affordable groundwater supply, and protect the quantity available for future use.

Regulations Groundwater level measurements can be made with many types of instruments. Choosing the right type of equipment depends on factors such as accuracy or ease of the measurement, water quality issues, the type and pumping activity of the well or nearby wells. The monitoring network design depends on the objectives of the monitoring. The basic objective of groundwater quality monitoring is the detection and evaluation of changes in groundwater quality. According to the Water Framework Directive (WFD) of the EU, monitoring should control the input of pollutants into the groundwater locally (point sources), and control the status of all groundwater bodies. In both cases, proper monitoring network design should include the same factors (e.g. geology, hydrogeol-ogy, recharge and discharge zones, the migration time of contaminants, land use and human impact, regulatory requirements) but could be different in some details, e.g.:the number and location of observation wells, their construction, the sampling frequency and the range of measurements taken according to environmental standards The representativity index of a simple monitoring network with regular theoretical shapes and its practical application for the existing groundwater monitoring network of the Tychy-Urbanowice landfills, Poland (PDF Download Available).

Organizational scheme of groundwater bodies monitoring consistent with the agrement of the WDF

Principles of organizing and functioning of monitoring Neither WFD nor methodological handbooks (Guidance, 2002) provide detailed regulations concerning the manner and range of monitoring. Development of detailed programmes was left up to individual EU members, allowing to take into account local specific hydrogeological conditions and organizational and methodological approach applied in monitoring. However, it was noted that the accepted monitoring programme should be realistic, i.e. should be adequate to financial and organizational possibilities of the implementing institution. The Water Framework Directive defines two types of long term in time monitoring. In Poland, they will be developed in the following ways:  

water quantity monitoring — through control of the intake of available groundwater resources (by comparison of the total amount vs. use of resources) and groundwater level measurements; water quality monitoring — through investigations of physical and chemical parameters of waters

Groundwater bodies are the objects for monitoring. They are or can be extracted in the amounts of 100 m3 /day. Groundwater bodies also affect land ecosystems and the state of surface waters. It means that monitoring in Poland should cover all groundwater bodies.