High Plains Regional Ground Water Study
What is NAWQA?
During the past 25 years, industry and government made large financial investments in pollution
control that have resulted in better water quality across the Nation; ![]() To address these needs, the Congress appropriated funds in 1991 for the USGS to begin the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. The NAWQA Program builds upon an existing base of water-quality studies of the USGS, as well as those of other Federal, State, and local agencies. The objectives of the NAWQA Program are to:
![]() of the Nation's freshwater streams, rivers, and aquifers. ![]() ![]() that affect water-quality conditions. Assessing the quality of water in every location of the Nation would not be practical; therefore, NAWQA studies are conducted within areas called Study Units. These Study Units include more than 50 major river and aquifer systems that cover a diversity of hydrogeologic settings (Map). National synthesis of data analysis, based on aggregation of comparable information obtained from the Study Units, is a major component of the program. This effort focuses on selected water-quality topics using nationally consistent information. Comparative studies will explain differences and similarities in observed water-quality conditions among study areas and will identify changes and trends and their causes. The first topics addressed by the national synthesis are pesticides, nutrients, volatile organic compounds, and aquatic biology. Discussions on these and other water-quality topics will be published in periodic summaries of the quality of the Nation's ground and surface water as the information becomes available. |