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USGS Groundwater Data for Massachusetts

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The Massachusetts-Rhode Island office of the New England Water Science Center has transitioned to a new data management software package. While you may not notice this transition, some sites may have problems or delays in being updated. We are actively monitoring these conditions and resolving them as quickly as possible. For more information contact Richard Verdi at rverdi@usgs.gov or 508-490-5064. See the December 8th news entry at: https:/ /help.waterdata.usgs.gov/news


ICE EFFECTS ON STREAMFLOW During winter, ice formation may cause stage and discharge values to appear higher than expected. Ice effects may be minor (occurring only at night and early morning) with baseline flows obvious, or the effects may be major (stage constantly increases over several days or weeks) resulting in greatly erroneous discharge. Streamgages experiencing minor ice conditions will continue to display stage and discharge values to enable users to estimate the approximate base-line stage and discharge. Streamgages experiencing major ice conditions will have the discharge record temporarily disabled to prevent use of erroneous discharge values. The discharge record will resume when it is determined that ice conditions are no longer present. Daily mean discharges during periods of ice effect will be estimated after detailed data analysis.

Current Conditions
(37 sites)

Current conditions at selected sites based on the most recent data from on-site automated recording equipment. Measurements are commonly recorded at a fixed interval of 15- to 60-minutes and transmitted to the USGS every hour. Values may include "Approved" (quality-assured data that may be published) and/or more recent "Provisional" data (of unverified accuracy and subject to revision). Most current data are provisional.

Historical Observations
(37 sites)

The same data accessed by the Current Conditions link above but including both active and discontinued sites with data for any part of the period October 1, 2007, through the present. Values may include "Approved" (quality-assured data that may be published) and/or more recent "Provisional" data (of unverified accuracy and subject to revision).

Daily Data
(36 sites)

Summary of all data for each day for the period of record and may represent the daily mean, median, maximum, minimum, and/or other derived value. Values may include "Approved" (quality-assured data that may be published) and/or more recent "Provisional" data (of unverified accuracy and subject to revision). Example.

Statistics
(35 sites)

Statistics are computed from approved daily mean data at each site. These links provide summaries of approved historical daily values for daily, monthly, and annual (water year or calendar year) time periods.

Field Measurements
(17,420 sites)
Manual measurements of depth to water in wells.
Introduction

The USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) contains extensive water data for the nation. Public access to many of these data is provided via the USGS Water Data for the Nation site (additional background).

The Groundwater database consists of more than 850,000 records of wells, springs, test holes, tunnels,drains, and excavations in the United States. Available site descriptive information includes well location information such as latitude and longitude, well depth, and aquifer.
The USGS annually monitors groundwater levels in thousands of wells in the United States. Groundwater level data are collected and stored as either discrete field-water-level measurements or as continuous time-series data from automated recorders. Data from some of the continuous record stations are relayed to USGS offices nationwide through telephone lines or by satellite transmissions providing access to current groundwater data.

Once a complete day of readings are received from a site, daily summary data are generated and made available online. USGS finalizes data at individual sites on a continuous basis as environmental conditions and hydrologic characteristics permit.