Ground-Water Protection Zones

In many areas, the water demand of households, industries and farms is satisfied by ground water. Because of many human activities ground-water quality decreases, it is necessary to protect it. The quantity of pollutants entering the aquifers can be minimized by technical and legal measures. But it seems to be almost impossible to solve the problem regionally or nationwide. The delineation of protection zones around existing or planned wells is a more effective way. The intake area of wells or well fields have to be protected by legal measures against all activities which may affect ground-water quality. Regarding the migration of viruses and bacteria, it is well known that these biological pollutants have a distinct limited lifetime in aquifers, which is for West Germany estimated at 50 days. Because during this limited time they can move with the ground water, transfer diseases, and cause epidemics, certain zones around wells must be kept free from activities which may introduce bacteria into the subsurface systems. These zones are generally smaller than the catchments. For the determination of the zones, careful studies and calculations of the distance-velocity of ground water are necessary. Primary methods are the use of tracers and simple calculations. Examples are given for calculating the distance to the 50-day line, based on West German experience.