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It is commonly thought that old groundwater cannot be pumped sustainably, and that recently recharged groundwater is inherently sustainable. We argue that both old and young groundwaters can
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was supported by a Global Water Futures grant to G.F. and J.C.M. and an NSERC Discovery Grant to G.F. J.C.M acknowledges funding received as a Fellow of the
CIFAR Earth4D Subsurface Science and Exploration Program. M.O.C. acknowledges support under an Independent Research Fellowship from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC;
NE/P017819/1). This commentary benefitted from discussions with P. Döll, J. Famiglietti, G. Fogg, X. Huggins, A. Manning, K. Markovich and M. Rohde. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND
AFFILIATIONS * Civil, Geological and Environmental Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada Grant Ferguson & Jennifer C. McIntosh * School of Environment
and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada Grant Ferguson * Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA Grant Ferguson
& Jennifer C. McIntosh * School of Earth and Ocean Sciences & Water Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK Mark O. Cuthbert * Connected Waters Initiative Research
Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Mark O. Cuthbert * Department of Geosciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA Kevin Befus * Department
of Civil Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Tom Gleeson * School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Tom Gleeson Authors * Grant Ferguson View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Mark O. Cuthbert View author publications You can also search for
this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Kevin Befus View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Tom Gleeson View author publications You can also
search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Jennifer C. McIntosh View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence
to Grant Ferguson. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE
Ferguson, G., Cuthbert, M.O., Befus, K. _et al._ Rethinking groundwater age. _Nat. Geosci._ 13, 592–594 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0629-7 Download citation * Published: 01
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