Our region's water supply comes from streams and rivers, groundwater, and reservoirs. Areas not served by public-water supply rely on groundwater withdrawn from fractured rock aquifers in western Maryland, or surficial (water table) and confined aquifers in southern Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C., and the Eastern Shore.
Groundwater research works to improve our understanding of groundwater resources across Maryland through groundwater monitoring networks and in-depth studies. Team monitoring and research projects are site specific to regional in scale, and can address groundwater flow, groundwater availability, water supply and use, water resource modeling, and/or contaminant fate and transport. The MD-DE-DC WSC logs data on nearly 400 groundwater wells throughout the region.
Investigative capabilities include groundwater model development and maintenance, down-hole and surface geophysics, advanced geochemical, microbial, and hydrologic data-collection techniques, statistical and spatial analysis, database design and maintenance, and interpretive reporting and communication of results to water resource managers, cooperators, colleges & universities, and the general public.
