Ground Water Technical Support

The USGS has a long tradition of providing national technical support for all of its distributed ground-water activities. The Ground-Water Resources Program financially supports the Office of Ground Water’s Technical Support Plan. The technical support provided by the Office of Ground Water can be divided into four categories—technical development, technology transfer and training, quality assurance, and synthesis and ground-water information dissemination.

• Technology Development
  
  The Office of Ground Water contributes to ground water research and development by conducting research, organizing and leveraging research activities of various organizational units of the USGS, participating on committees such as the Water-Discipline Instrumentation Committee (ICOM), and providing advice to the Chief Scientist for Hydrology and the Associate Director for Water.
  
  
• Technology Transfer and Training
  
  Technology transfer of research developments and technological improvements from the developers, who can be research or field personnel, to USGS personnel is an important function of the Office of Ground Water. This task is accomplished through personal consultation on specific projects; publication of technical procedures in the “US Geological Survey Techniques and Methods” series, and other report outlets; distribution of important research publications to the field; and training.
  
  
• Quality Assurance
  
  The Office of Ground Water performs national reviews of the technical ground-water program and ground-water data collection activities of the USGS State Water Science Centers. These technical reviews are coordinated with the USGS Regional Offices, the Office of Water Quality, and the Office of Surface Water. Once every three years a State Water Science Center receives a technical review of projects and data collection activities. The Office of Ground Water also provides technical procedures for standard data collection activities and geophysical methods. The Office of Ground Water sets national policy on the conduct of projects and the collection and storage of data.
  
  
• Synthesis and Ground-Water Information Dissemination
  
  In providing leadership and quality assurance of the technical ground-water program of the USGS and in coordinating national programs such as the GWRP, the Yucca Mountain Project Branch, and the Water-Use Program, the Office of Ground Water is in a position to disseminate to the public information of national scope and importance on technical issues related to ground water. This is routinely accomplished through publication of synthesis reports written for a wide audience and the maintenance of USGS ground-water information online for dissemination over the Internet.