Two-Thirds of Rhode of Island's communities depend wholly or in part on groundwater for their drinking water. Responsibility for protecting Rhode Island's groundwater resources is shared by federal, state, and local governments, with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) Division of Groundwater and Freshwater Wetlands taking the lead role at the state level (5). The Groundwater Protection Section of the division is developing and implementing a comprehensive program to protect groundwater resources. As part of the program's development, RIDEM has made extensive use of geographic information system (GIS) techology to develop a groundwater data base and distribute information derived from these data to state and local officials for groundwater protection planning. Rhode Island's state regulatory programs include those regarding waste disposal, underground storage of hazardous materials, and hazardous waste generation and storage. These are, however, only part of the response needed to ensure that groundwater supplies are protected adequately. Improper waste disposal at facilities will always be a threat, and state regulations cannot fully control spills and leaks of potential contaminants and nonpoint pollution, which have caused significant groundwater degradation. Local governments, with authority to restrict threatening land uses, must …
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Baker et al. (1990) studied this question.