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USGS Groundwater Information

Groundwater Resources Program

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[Photo: Ground water flowing out of well.]

New & Noteworthy

* New!: Press Release: Irrigation Causing Declines in the High Plains Aquifer

* Press Release: New Study Lends Insight to Decreasing Denver Basin Groundwater Availability

* Press Release: Groundwater Storage Losses Substantial Across Eight State Aquifer System

* Report: Groundwater availability of the Mississippi embayment

* Report: New tool to assess groundwater resources in the Mississippi embayment

* Report: Selected approaches to estimate water-budget components of the High Plains, 1940-1949 and 2000-2009

Past listings...

USGS Groundwater Watch

USGS maintains a network of active wells to provide basic statistics about groundwater levels.

[Image: USGS active water level wells location map.]

Other Water Topics

*  Water Resources

*  Groundwater

*  Surface Water

*  Water Quality

*  Water Use

USGS in Your State

USGS Water Science Centers are located in each state.

[Map: There is a USGS Water Science Center office in each State.] Washington Oregon California Idaho Nevada Montana Wyoming Utah Colorado Arizona New Mexico North Dakota South Dakota Nebraska Kansas Oklahoma Texas Minnesota Iowa Missouri Arkansas Louisiana Wisconsin Illinois Mississippi Michigan Indiana Ohio Kentucky Tennessee Alabama Pennsylvania West Virginia Georgia Florida Caribbean Alaska Hawaii and Pacific Islands New York Vermont New Hampshire Maine Massachusetts South Carolina North Carolina Rhode Island Virginia Connecticut New Jersey Maryland-Delaware-D.C.

Groundwater Recharge

Groundwater recharge is a critical part of the overall water budget and is one of the most difficult components to quantify. The mapping of the spatial and temporal variability of recharge remains a topic of great interest. Improved knowledge of this variability would help water managers to better assess water availability and protect vulnerable aquifers under stresses from expanding urbanization or drought. Recharge estimates should be detailed enough to resolve local variability while also providing accurate regional values needed to manage a regional groundwoater system.

The Groundwater Resources Program supports activities that develop a better understanding of recharge processes at local scales and also develop capabilities to estimate recharge at the scale of regional aquifer systems. Recent examples of such investigations include:

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URL: http://water.usgs.gov/ogw/gwrp/activities/gw_recharge.html
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Page Last Modified: Thursday, 23-Jul-2009 19:25:06 EDT