My colleagues find this amusing at times, but there is more truth than humor in this statement. For example, Pennsylvania's ground water is a critical resource that provides environmental benefits and contributes to the well-being of our citizens and the economic growth potential of the Commonwealth Ground water is also very important to the protection of Pennsylvania's surface streams, since it provides a significant percent of the sustaining baseflow to the approximately 83,000 miles of streams and rivers. And, most importantly, Pennsylvania's 12 million people rely upon ground water and treated surface water for their drinking water. When you add community water systems into the equation, it becomes clear that nearly half of the population of Pennsylvania uses ground water for their drinking water supplies. In many rural areas, almost 100 percent of the population depends on ground water.
Clean water is also essential to aquatic life.
On Sunday, my wife and I hiked a part of Yellow Breeches Creek in Cumberland County. Water is the fuel of the Pennsylvania economic engine that provides jobs for our citizens and grows our economy. And, quite candidly, we have taken our water resources for granted for many years and assumed they will always be available to us in adequate quantity and quality. As you may already be aware, National Drinking Water Week and National Ground Water Awareness Week were both observed last week. It is fitting that both were observed simultaneously because the issues of ground water and drinking water are so often intertwined.