This technique is not science fiction in many regions of the world exposed to high drinking water deficits. In France, for certain communities with fragile underground resources, the question of returning wastewater directly to the tap is no longer taboo. Technically, there are no obstacles. This purified water can therefore very well be stored underground.
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Even if this technique is not yet used in France, it is one of the possible “sources” of “controlled aquifer recharge”.
Better than detentions
Geologists designate by aquifer the rock which plays the role of “container” for underground water. The artificial “recharge” of groundwater is practiced all over the world. Particularly in coastal regions. In the event of a drop in level, coastal freshwater aquifers can indeed be invaded by saline waters.
The principle is to “store” water when it is present in abundance.
In short, it comes under the same objective as the projects of reservoirs, or “basins”, which certain farmers claim to ensure the irrigation of their crops or the watering of their animals in summer.
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Except that underground storage seems to create much less tension on the preservation of the ecosystems of waterways and wetlands.
The fact of storing water underground by definition reduces the loss by evaporation and allows the stored water to benefit from natural purification by the ground. The most commonly practiced recharge technique is that of the “infiltration basin”. It can be rainwater which infiltrates in winter, or surface water, slowed down during floods and which infiltrates through the banks of rivers (this is the only recharge solution currently validated in France for drinking water). It is of course necessary to call upon the hydrogeologists to know the capacities of infiltration, purification of a site and to evaluate the advisability of a storage. The BRGM (Bureau of Geological and Mining Research) has identified around fifty recharging sites on national territory. Half is already exploited.
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