USGS Has Answers on Arizona Groundwater
Where in Arizona are groundwater levels falling? Where are they stable or rising? How much has the water table changed since large-scale pumping has occurred? A new online system developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is designed to answer these and other questions for the most developed groundwater areas in the state.
The system uses water-level measurements from wells, collected over the past 75 years by USGS and the Arizona Department of Water Resources. Visit the new online system, called "Arizona Ground-Water Conditions Interactive Map Service" at >a href="http://montezuma.wr.usgs.gov/website/azgwconditions/" target="new">montezuma.wr.usgs.gov/website/azgwconditions/.
The new site provides basic information on the system, a link to the just-released Open-File Report explaining how the data layers were created, and a button to launch the interactive map. The map initially shows the entire state and selected features including boundaries of groundwater areas. Users can select specific types of groundwater information to display.
Fred Tillman of USGS, developer of the new internet site, commented, "The status of groundwater conditions is often challenging to display. We took the approach of providing different layers of information, applicable to different questions about the groundwater systems. Arizona is very dependent upon groundwater, and it is important to provide accessible information to policymakers, water managers and the general public on the status of this valuable, shared resource."