Groundwater levels generally in good shape, announces BRGM

The public body responsible for monitoring groundwater reserves points out that more than two thirds of metropolitan water tables are above normal.

The rain continues to fall despite the summer. As a result, the water tables remain at levels “very satisfactory” over more than two thirds of France, suggesting a summer season “less complicated” than in 2023 in terms of drought.

June 2024 “ranks third wettest June for water tables in 30 years”after June 2001 and June 2013, announced Friday, July 12, the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM), the public body responsible for monitoring groundwater reserves. As of July 1, 70% of metropolitan water tables are above normal, exactly as they were a month ago, while in this season, the level tends to drop due to the absorption of water by vegetation and rising temperatures.

“It’s really a pretty exceptional month of June for tablecloths” which are very rarely at such high levels at this time of year, stressed Violaine Bault, hydrogeologist at BRGM during a videoconference. An exception also compared to the summer of 2023, when 68% of the water tables were below normal at the same time. “We are in a completely reversed situation, which is quite remarkable because usually such a change takes two or three years.”noted Violaine Bault. This year, “the state of the June water tables is very satisfactory” due to excess 2023-2024 recharge and support from spring rains.

Only 17% of observation points are below monthly norms, even less than on June 1 (19%), including 5% at very low levels in the Pyrénées-Orientales and part of Corsica, which have had almost no rain, as well as very inertial water tables (Sundgau, Bresse and Dombes), which take the longest to recharge. For this reason, the organization is nevertheless calling for vigilance “on the water tables which currently show moderately low to very low levels as well as on the sectors heavily used by abstractions” particularly for agricultural irrigation (Normandy, Beauce, Loire regions, Drôme, etc.), with “local tensions” which might appear.