USGS Monthly Groundwater News and Highlights: July 1, 2015

Featured Product: Groundwater Watch: USGS Groundwater Networks

The USGS collects groundwater data from wells across the Nation as part of USGS investigations and programs. Groups of related wells are combined into networks at local, regional, or national levels to help us better understand groundwater conditions over a certain area and how those conditions change over time. Basic statistics about water-level data from these USGS networks are available through the USGS Groundwater Watch web site. The USGS Active Groundwater Level Network, shown in the map to the left, includes about 20,000 wells that have been measured by the USGS or USGS cooperators at least once within the past 13 months.

USGS Groundwater-Related Publications

Progress toward a National Water Census

Hydrologic influences on water-level changes in the Eastern Snake River Plain aquifer at and near the Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho, 1949-2014

Hydrologic data from wells at or in the vicinity of the San Juan coal mine, San Juan County, New Mexico

Hydrologic model of the Modesto Region, California, 1960-2004

Simulation of nitrogen attenuation in a subterranean estuary, representative of the southern coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Hydrogeologic data and water-quality data from a thick unsaturated zone at a proposed wastewater-treatment facility site, Yucca Valley, San Bernardino County, California, 2008-11

Estimated water use in Arkansas, 2010

Water levels and water quality in the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer in eastern Arkansas, 2012

Accounting for groundwater in stream fish thermal habitat responses to climate change

Framework for a hydrologic climate-response network in New England

A century of oilfield operations and earthquakes in the greater Los Angeles Basin, southern California

Water resources of St. James Parish, Louisiana

USGS Groundwater-Related Press Releases

Water Used for Hydraulic Fracturing Varies Widely Across United States

Declining Water Levels Pose Challenges for Eastern Idaho Aquifer Monitoring

New Screening Tool Protects Streams, Wetlands, and Residences From Landfill Risks

Congressional Hearings, Briefings, and Statements

Hearing to receive testimony on the status of drought conditions throughout the western United States and actions states and others are taking to address them

USGS Groundwater-Related Software Updates and New Releases

PHREEQC v3.2.0

PhreeqcI v3.2.0-9820

PhreeqcRM v3.2.0

Field Photo:

Martin Briggs (Hydrologist, USGS OGW Branch of Geophysics) is shown guiding in a float plane for transportation from a native village in Fort Yukon, Alaska, to a remote lake which has recently been changing size, possibly as a result of climate change. The field work was part of USGS applied research to evaluate the use of new or emerging hydrogeophysical tools and methods to improve our understanding of groundwater/surface-water exchange. Learn more about geophysics for USGS groundwater/surface-water interaction studies.