Upper Rhine Aquifer
Located below the plain, the Upper Rhine aquifer - one of the largest in Europe - holds an estimated 450,000 km3 (110,000 cu mi) of fresh water and supplies some 3 million people in France and Germany, supplying 75% of their drinking water and 50% of the water used by industry. Since the 1970s it has suffered increasingly serious pollution from nitrates, pesticides, chloride and VOCs.
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