USGS Monthly Groundwater News and Highlights

[ Screenshot of National Groundwater Monitoring Network data portal ]

Featured Product: National Groundwater Monitoring Network (NGWMN)

Groundwater monitoring networks are operated by many Federal, State, Tribal, and local agencies, including the USGS. Even though groundwater monitoring is done in many places and at many scales, there is no ready access to the combined data at the national level and there are no standards that address consistent data structure and quality. The USGS is collaborating with the federal Advisory Committee on Water Information to address these gaps through initiatives such as the new National Groundwater Monitoring Network (NGWMN).

Hosted by the USGS, the NGWMN is a compilation of selected groundwater monitoring wells from Federal, State, and local groundwater monitoring networks across the Nation. The NGWMN Data Portal provides easy online access to groundwater data from multiple, dispersed databases hosted by the various agencies. As of May 2015, the NGWMN includes data from at least 2,831 groundwater wells across 32 states and 48 principal aquifers.

USGS Groundwater-Related Publications

Animation of Groundwater Watch Active Water Level Network, 30 days

The USGS Active Groundwater Level Network includes than 20,000 wells that have been measured by the USGS or USGS cooperators at least once within the past 13 months. The animation shows a daily snapshot of water-level statistics in the network over a period of about 30 days. Credit: USGS. The image is in the public domain.

Soil- and groundwater-quality data for petroleum hydrocarbon compounds within Fuels Area C, Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, 2014

Groundwater flow in the Brunswick/Glynn County area, Georgia, 2000-04

Evaluation of groundwater levels in the South Platte River alluvial aquifer, Colorado, 1953-2012, and design of initial well networks for monitoring groundwater levels

Simulated effects of Lower Floridan aquifer pumping on the Upper Floridan aquifer at Rincon, Effingham County, Georgia

Water-table and potentiometric-surface altitudes in the Upper Glacial, Magothy, and Lloyd aquifers of Long Island, New York, April-May 2013

Groundwater quality in the Cascade Range and Modoc Plateau, California

Status and understanding of groundwater quality in the Cascade Range and Modoc Plateau study unit, 2010: California GAMA Priority Basin Project

Hydrogeologic framework, groundwater movement, and water budget in the Puyallup River Watershed and vicinity, Pierce and King Counties, Washington

Potentiometric surface, 2012, and water-level differences, 2005-12, of the Sparta Aquifer in north-central Louisiana

Mapping selected trace elements and major ions, 2000-2012, Mojave River and Morongo groundwater basins, southwestern Mojave Desert, San Bernardino County, California

Water quality of the Little Arkansas River and Equus Beds Aquifer before and concurrent with large-scale artificial recharge, south-central Kansas, 1995-2012

USGS Groundwater-Related Press Releases

Heat Accelerates Dry in California Drought

The Chemistry of Waters that Follow from Fracking: A Case Study

Water Quality in Equus Beds Aquifer Minimally Affected by Artificial Recharge

Assessing the State of San Pedro Water Resources

USGS Groundwater-Related Software Updates and New Releases

ModelMuse v.3.6.1

Groundwater Toolbox v1.1

Photo Credit: USGS/C.B. Dawson. The photo is in the public domain.

Field Photo:

A group of USGS Pathways and National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) interns gathered in Connecticut in May 2015 for hands-on field training on geophysical tools and methods used for USGS groundwater studies. In this photo, interns from the the USGS New England Water Science Center and the USGS Office of Groundwater, Branch of Geophysics collected ground-penetrating radar (GPR). Interns will be applying the methods they learned at USGS field sites across the Nation.