Pioneer Valley
Planning Commission

Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, MA

Media Release

CONTACT: Anne Capra, PVPC Principal Planner (413) 781-6045


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 13, 2010

National Groundwater Awareness Day Supported by Banes Aquifer protection Advisory Committee

The Barnes Aquifer Protection Advisory Committee (BAPAC) is pleased to support National Protect Your Groundwater Day on Tuesday, September 14, an effort by the National Ground Water Association to encourage awareness and action to protect the quality and quantity of groundwater.

Contamination of groundwater can occur naturally or can be caused by human activities due to things we apply to our environment, such as landscape chemicals, or via other hazardous substances such as road salt, oil and gasoline, industrial byproducts, and the like. Naturally caused contamination can result from surface water seeping into corroded monitoring wells, for example.

To learn more about National Protect Your Groundwater Day, visit the National Ground Water Association’s website at http://www.ngwa.org/public/PYGD/pygd.aspx .

The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission offers guidance on how to protect surface and groundwater from contamination through our Think Blue Campaign. To learn more, visit www.ThinkBlueMA.org . PVPC is also a member of Greenscapes, a statewide consortium of organizations promoting organic land care practices. To learn more about Greenscapes, go to www.Greenscapes.org .

BAPAC is composed of representatives from the four jurisdictions in which the Barnes Aquifer is located: Easthampton, Southampton, Westfield, and Holyoke. The committee was created in 1989 to address developments of regional impact proposed within the aquifer to ensure that drinking water resources remain safe for the more than 60,000 people served by the aquifer.