What is Groundwater?

Did you know that there is an immense amount of water in aquifers below the earth's surface? In fact, there is over a thousand times more water in the ground than is in all the world's rivers and lakes.

Some water underlies the Earth's surface almost everywhere, beneath hills, mountains, plains, and deserts. It is not always accessible, or fresh enough for use without treatment. It's also sometimes difficult to locate or to measure and describe. This water may occur close to the land surface, as in a marsh, or it may lie many hundreds of feet below the surface, as in some arid areas of the western United States. Water at very shallow depths might be just a few hours old. At moderate depth, it may be 100…