Groundwater resource development is being challenged as unsound ecologically and unsustainable economically. Wellfields that access aquifer storage have been long recognized as having an associated depletion effect on interrelated streams, in accordance with guidance from hydrologists Theis, Hantush, Jacob and others. River basins have been administered accordingly for 60 years in New Mexico, for example. Wide awareness has come more recently of the associated impact on ecosystems and on traditional water-use patterns. Where hydrologic effects of wellfields are fully understood, the issue remains of their acceptability in law and policy. Endangered-species recovery and ancient water rights, some established under earlier sovereigns, are increasingly enforced by court order requiring that the pre-development baseflow hydrograph and wetlands be respected. Water-planning policy in New Mexico seeks to reconcile the water-short hydrology with the social objectives for growth and protection. The focus is on finding new water sources and preferred alternatives to match growing demands. Where there is no new water, water use shifts from farms to city wellfields. Prior rights and interstate compacts are administered, while impacts accumulate on ecological waters. The enormous volume of water in aquifer storage can be developed if the river baseflow is held at currently impacted levels.

Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament established a framework for action in the field of water policy (The Water Framework Directive). The European focus is on recovering “good status” of the hydrologic system in quantitative and ecological terms by year 2015. Available groundwater, according to the framework, is that amount which does not significantly diminish the ecological status of associated surface waters. In contrast to the conventional planning approach in the American southwest, the European framework offers a different paradigm. Decide first on the status of the hydrologic basin that would be considered “good” in development and ecological terms, then manage water operations to be compatible. The stored resource in aquifers is a critical element to be managed in recovering the good status of the system.