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USGS IN YOUR STATE

USGS Water Science Centers are located in each state.

The glacial aquifer system groundwater availability study is a regional study of the USGS Groundwater Resources Program. These regional studies form the basis for the groundwater assessments within a national Water Census. Groundwater is one of the most important natural resources of the nation. It provides half our drinking water and is essential to the vitality of agriculture and industry, and to the health of rivers, wetlands, and estuaries. Large-scale development of groundwater resources with accompanying declines in groundwater levels and other effects of pumping such as streamflow depletion has led to concerns about the future availability of groundwater to meet domestic and public supply, agricultural, industrial, and environmental needs.

The benefits of the glacial aquifer study include:

• Development of methods to quantify local features of the groundwater flow system with regional studies,
• Development of methods to effectively quantify and communicate regional groundwater availability to stakeholders and decisionmakers in the context of local questions,
• Assessment of the status and trends of groundwater resources in the glacial aquifer system, and
• Development and application of methods to predict the response of the glacial aquifer system to future changes in pumping, land-use, and climate.

Each of these features contribute to answering the question, “How much freshwater is available to the nation for human and environmental needs?”