Cooperative Water Program

"USGS is an indispensable partner with our agency, providing believable, relevant, scientifically sound and timely information that complements our State's water planning and management and conservation of our water resources. We depend on this long-term cooperation needed to monitor the availability of surface water and ground water and assess and model these resources across South Carolina so that our managers can maintain the appropriate balance among water-supply development, economic growth, and preservation of our critical fish and wildlife habitats." (Ken Rentiers, Deputy Director, SC Department of Natural Resources)

"The Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) greatly values the USGS streamflow program in Arizona and the invaluable data that it provides. ADWR shares [USGS] concern for the future operation and maintenance of stations for which long-term cooperator support has not yet been secured. Twelve stations threatened to be discontinued combine for more than 600 years of streamflow data, including three having more than 80 years of record each. These at-risk stations collect data from rivers and streams important to water management and flood monitoring in Arizona." Sandra Fabritz-Whitney, Director

“Our partnership with the USGS has led to key insights that have helped us understand the scope of toxic contamination in the Columbia River, a key step to reducing contaminants and improving water quality.” Debrah Marriott, Executive Director of the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership (Read more)

"The new flood technology on USGS streamgages on Iowa's rivers will help prepare people for dangerous situations like the flash floods of 2010 in East Des Moines. In a lot of cases, minutes mean lives. And that's exactly what this provides us. It's a higher resolution look at the amount of water entering our stream systems." AJ Mumm, Polk County, Iowa, Emergency Manager

Washington State Department of Ecology uses USGS models to quantify the effects of groundwater pumping on streams and to define “groundwater reserve” areas for accommodating new permit-exempt wells in basins that are closed to additional surface-water rights (Press release; USGS report)

The City of Newport News in Virginia is reassessing “safe yields” from Chickahominy River water-supply intakes based on CWP findings on changing salinity due to sea level rise. (USGS report)

Wake County managers in North Carolina use USGS groundwater information collected in fractured-bedrock to manage dewatering, water use, and water supplies. (USGS Report)

State of Mississippi uses CWP irrigation-conservation models for decisions on irrigation use and conservation management in the Mississippi Delta. (USGS report)

Beginning with a CWP project in Austin, Texas, continued USGS assessments led to new regulations by the State of Washington on the use of coal-tar sealcoat on parking lots, driveways, and other pavement—a major source of toxic PAHs to aquatic life. (Journal article; USGS Fact Sheet)

City of Wichita, Kansas uses real-time surrogate estimates of water quality and other USGS research to manage drinking-water supplies from Cheney Reservoir and to manage artificial recharge in the Equus beds aquifer. (USGS reports; City of Wichita Equus Beds Aquifer Storage and Recovery Project)