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USGS Monthly Groundwater News and Highlights

National Ground-Water Monitoring Network

This map displays groundwater-level conditions in the National Ground-Water Monitoring Network (NGWMN) on October 31, 2022, relative to data for each well from the same month for every year data are available.

The NGWMN is a compilation of selected groundwater wells from Federal, State, and local groundwater monitoring networks across the nation. The groundwater-level statistics are displayed over a map of the Principal Aquifers of the United States.

Feature: Quality of Groundwater Used for Public Supply in the Continental United States: A Comprehensive Assessment

A new USGS study indicates that naturally occurring geogenic constituents have a larger effect on groundwater quality used for public supply in the U.S. than anthropogenic constituents.

The presence of contaminants in a source water can constrain its suitability for drinking. The quality of groundwater used for public supply was assessed in 25 principal aquifers (PAs) that account for 84% of groundwater pumped for public supply in the U.S:

• Nationally, elevated concentrations of geogenic constituents have a larger effect than anthropogenic constituents, as indicated by three metrics: detection frequency, 35% versus 8.1%; prevalence (based on area), 41% versus 6.4%; and population potentially affected, 31.2 million versus 7.1 million.
• Prevalence of any constituent at elevated concentrations was high─40 to 75%─in PAs comprising unconsolidated sediment (eight PAs) and sandstone or interbedded sandstones and carbonates (four PAs) in the West and Central Interior.
• Prevalence was lower─15 to 35%─in PAs comprising sediment and sedimentary rocks along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts (four PAs), carbonates distributed across the continental U.S. (seven PAs), and hard rock (two PAs).

Figure: Bar graph of population potentially affected by groundwater contaminants. Source: Belitz and others, 2022. 

Field Photo

Not your usual groundwater field photo! In this photo, USGS scientific diver BJ Reynolds is next to a submarine groundwater well on the seafloor. These types of wells allow scientists to monitor submarine groundwater through time and to quantify the flux of groundwater from Florida’s aquifers into the coastal waters of the west Florida Shelf. The groundwater could carry nutrients that could potentially influence algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico.

USGS Groundwater-Related Press Releases

Media Alert: USGS study will dye Slate River green in November (10/27/2022)

How USGS engages stakeholders to guide water-data delivery (10/24/2022)

New USGS Water Cycle Diagram re-envisions how Earth’s most precious commodity cycles the planet (10/13/2022); (View virtual release party on YouTube)

USGS Groundwater-Related Publications

Characterization of the Sevier/Toroweap Fault Zone in Kane County, Utah, using controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotelluric (CSAMT) surveys (10/31/22)

A multiscale approach for monitoring groundwater discharge to headwater streams by the U.S. Geological Survey Next Generation Water Observing System Program—An example from the Neversink Reservoir watershed, New York (10/25/22)

Quality of groundwater used for public supply in the continental United States: A comprehensive assessment (10/24/22)

Groundwater, surface-water, and water-chemistry data, Black Mesa area, northeastern Arizona—2018–2019 (10/18/22)

Mechanisms and magnitude of dissolved silica release from a New England salt marsh (10/19/22)

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in passive samplers at seven coastal sites off West Maui, Hawaiʻi: (10/24/22)

Oxygenation of a karst subterranean estuary during a tropical cyclone: Mechanisms and implications for the carbon cycle (10/19/22)

Potential effects of energy development on environmental resources of the Williston Basin in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota—Water resources (10/19/22)

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