Aquifer Aquifer Source of Pure Water Imagine if all the water that fell onto Maine in a single year stayed right where it landed.
Aquifers are underground reservoirs.
The water that reaches these chambers is usually much cleaner than the water of reservoirs at the earth's surface. Almost no bacteria live in aquifers. Many pollutants are filtered out as the water passes through the soil on its way to the aquifer. Unlike surface reservoirs like Sebago Lake, there is no silty mud to cloud the water, no pollution from boaters, and no evaporation of the water supply by the sun. To tap the groundwater in an aquifer, wells are dug until they reach the top layer of the aquifer, the water table.