State-wide ground water levels monitoring program

Project Number: 97169C8
Cooperating Agency(ies): Utah Department of Natural Resources, Department of Water Rights, and the Central Utah Water Conservancy District
Project Chief (s): Cory Angeroth, USGS Salt Lake City, Utah
Project Period: Long-term continuous data collection

Problem: Long-term water-level records are needed to evaluate the effects of climatic variations on the recharge to and discharge from the ground-water systems, to provide a data base from which to measure the effects of development, to assist in the prediction of future supplies, and to provide data for management of the resource. These data are used to determine long-term trends in water levels and sustainable yields in an aquifer, to assess the effects of climate on water levels, and to develop flow and transport models that allow prediction of future conditions and detection and definition of contaminant and water-supply problems. The data are critical to local, State, and regional water managers for broad-based planning and managing of water-resources projects concerning drought warning and assessment, subsurface water storage, the effects of changing land use, and interstate water-rights agreements.

Objectives: The objectives of this project are to collect water-level data sufficient to provide a minimum long-term data base in the major aquifer systems of the State of Utah so that the general response of the hydrologic system to natural climatic variations and induced stresses is known. Potential problems can then be defined early enough to allow proper planning and management. These data are also needed to provide a data base against which the short-term records acquired in areal studies can be analyzed.

Relevance and Benefits: An important part of the USGS mission is to provide scientific information to manage the water resources of the Nation. To effectively assess the Nation's ground-water resources, the USGS monitors water levels in thousands of wells, determines aquifer characteristics in principal aquifers, and monitors the quality of water in wells and springs using standardized methods. These data are used in determining long-term trends in water levels by aquifer, sustainable yields by aquifer, climatic effects on water levels, and in development of flow and transport models that allow prediction of future conditions and detection and definition of contaminant and water-supply problems. The data are critical to local, state, and regional water managers for planning and managing of water-resources projects.

Approach: Evaluation of regional geology allows broad, general definition of aquifer systems and their boundary conditions. Within this framework and with some knowledge of the stress on the system in time and space and the hydrologic properties of the aquifers, a subjective decision can be made on the most advantageous locations for observation of long-term system behavior. This network can be refined as records become available and detailed area studies of the ground-water system more closely define the aquifers, their properties, and the stresses to which they are subjected.

Products: The data are published in annual data reports, reports on specific aquifers, and modeling reports, and are made available on the World Wide Web.

NWISWEB Ground-Water data

2005 Ground-Water Conditions report

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL:http://ut.water.usgs.gov/newUTAH/Programs/gwlevelsmonitoring.html
Page Contact Information: GS-W-UT_Web_Requests@usgs.gov
Page Last Modified: Wednesday, 17-May-2006 11:26:16 EDT