Home

The groundwater of the Virginia Coastal

Plain is a unique and valuable natural

resource. According to the U.S. Geological

Survey, more than 1

25

million gallons

of

water are pumped every day from the

permeable sedimentary layers and

lenses

called aquifers, supplying

roughly

one

million

persons.

The Virginia Coastal Plain is a near level

area of approximately 13,000 square

miles,

bounded on the west by the Fall Line (close

by Route I-95), on the north by

the

Potomac

River, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and

on the south by the

border with

North

Carolina. Several large rivers, including the

Rappahannock,

York, and James,

cross the

plain from northwest to southeast, creating a

geographic feature known as

the Tidewater.

The Chesapeake Bay, a long, north-

south

estuary, separates the

peninsula of the

Eastern Shore from mainland

Virginia.

Although the groundwater supply of the

Virginia Coastal Plain is vast, it is not

limitless. Whereas the groundwater of the

shallow surficial aquifer is replenished

by

precipitation falling to the land surface, the

deeper artesian aquifers are, for all

practical

purposes, a non-renewable resource. Since

the beginning of the 20th

century, artesian

water levels have declined as much as 200

feet at some

localities.

Currently, water

levels

are falling at a rate of 1.2 to 3.0 feet per

year.

At

this rate disruptions in groundwater

supply

will become a common occurrence

.

As the groundwater of the Virginia Coastal

Plain shrinks, more and more of the

region's

water supply will have to come from non-

traditional sources, such as

desalination and

water recycling and reuse.

For a description of the groundwater system

of the Virginia Coastal Plain and the

problems

of its shrinking supply,

click here

.

GroundwaterVirginia

&
The
Environmental
Spectator

VIRGINIA

COASTAL

PLAIN

Groundwater of the
Virginia Coastal Plain

Overview