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in 65 of Virginia’s 95 counties and 80 percent of Virginians drink some amount of groundwater every day.
“‘Until recently, scientists believed that groundwater would be purified of contaminants as it filtered down through the soil. Today we know better,” Del. Rolliaon continued. A low flow of water eliminates any natural flushing action while lack of contact with the air insures that decomposition will be slow and pollutants long lived, he explained. As an example, he cited landfills, one of the mqjor sources of groundwater contamination, which release their benign pollutants first. “Some of the more insidious ones may take as long as 20 years to appear in groundwater samples.”
What has been a silent threat is growing louder, according to the Woodbridge delegate. Virginia’s groundwater pollution complaints quadrupled between 1979 and 1985. Of the 866 complaints received by the State Water Control Board in 1986, 233 involved domestic sewage and 244 were about leaking underground tanks, Del. Rollison reported.
90.0%