USGS Monthly Groundwater News and Highlights: March 1, 2019

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Feature: National Groundwater Awareness Week

The USGS joins our community partners, including the National Ground Water Association, in recognizing March 10-16, 2019, as National Groundwater Awareness Week because groundwater is important to all of us! Although many people associate the early Geological Survey only with mapping and mining of the West, the USGS was studying groundwater as early as the 1890s! Today, USGS scientists work constantly to improve our understanding of how groundwater moves through the subsurface and what human and natural factors affect the quantity and quality of that groundwater. USGS tools, information, and data are used every day by water-resource managers, regulators, policy makers, well operators, and others to make decisions about how best to protect our groundwater to meet current and future needs.

USGS Groundwater-Related Press Releases and Technical Announcements

POSTPONED due to weather: Ask Questions and Learn More About the Low-Level Helicopter Flying Above the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (2/5/2019)

USGS Groundwater-Related Publications

Modeling riparian restoration impacts on the hydrologic cycle at the Babacomari Ranch, SE Arizona, USA (02/25/19)

Hydraulic and water-quality indicators of aquifer zones contributing groundwater flow to wells in the Santa Fe Group aquifer system near southeast Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2013-16 (02/21/19)

Potential for increased inundation in flood-prone regions of southeast Florida in response to climate and sea-level changes in Broward County, Florida, 2060-69 (02/19/19)

Factors affecting the occurrence of lead and manganese in untreated drinking water from Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain aquifers, eastern United States -- Dissolved oxygen and pH framework for evaluating risk of elevated concentrations (02/14/19)

The dual-domain porosity apparatus: Characterizing dual porosity at the sediment/water interface (02/12/19)

Linking landscapes and people -- Projecting the future of the Great Plains (02/11/19)

Hydrogeology of Lower Amargosa Valley and groundwater discharge to the Amargosa Wild and Scenic River, Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, California, and adjacent areas in Nye and Clark Counties, Nevada (02/07/19)

The Mississippi Alluvial Plain aquifers -- An engine for economic activity (02/06/19)

Monitoring the pulse of our Nation's rivers and streams -- The U.S. Geological Survey streamgaging network (02/06/19)

Identifying natural and anthropogenic variability of uranium at the well scale, Homestake Superfund site, near Milan, New Mexico, USA (02/01/19)

Preferential groundwater seepage in karst terrane inferred from geoelectric measurements (02/01/19)

 

Field Photo

Did you know groundwater can sometimes flow up or down a well and out into other parts of an aquifer? This can be a problem if a well allows contaminated groundwater to flow into shallower or deeper parts of an aquifer system. USGS scientists are studying how groundwater moves through wells at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California. The wells were previously used to pump out groundwater so that it could be treated to remove trichlorethylene and heavy metals. Now that the wells are not being pumped anymore, site managers want to be sure the wells aren't acting as a way for the trichlorethylene and heavy metals to move into different parts of the aquifer system at the site. USGS is using special dyes to trace the movement of groundwater in the wells, to map where the water flows in and out of the well. This information can be used by site managers to inform decisions about how best to manage the wells. In these photos, USGS scientists are conducting tests on wells at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in June 2018. The close-up photo shows the well with a smaller white pipe inside it, which is used to insert the dye into the well.