Water Budget for Long Island, New York – Pre- and Post-Development

Water Budget for Long Island, New York – Pre- and Post-Development: The figure above shows a simplified water budget for the aquifer system of Long Island, NY. Water budgets can be calculated to illustrate how much water enters and leaves an aquifer. On Long Island, using the current (2015) pumping rate of about 150 billion gallons per year (Bgal/yr), groundwater withdrawals are only removing about 23% of the water entering the aquifer system as recharge (660 Bgal/yr), and have only resulted in about 1% of total groundwater depletion since the onset of pumping in the early 1900s. (Figure for illustrative purposed only, data subject to change.)