Water Sustainability

The Providence Water Supply Board (Providence Water) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are collaborating on a study to predict future water demand in and around the city of Providence.

The USGS, in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will be collecting water-quality and hydrologic data at six embayments from April 2021 to June 2027: Mystic, Norwalk, Saugatuck, Sasco-Southport complex, Farm, and Poquonnock.

Primarily through the efforts of Glenn Hodgkins and Robert Dudley, the New England Water Science Center has been studying historical changes in streamflows, groundwater levels, and lake ice in New England and across the country for 20 years. Glenn and Rob have analyzed a wealth of historical data, including 100+ years of streamflow data and 150+ years of lake-ice data at some locations...

The Scituate Reservoir system is the largest inland body of water in Rhode Island and the principal drinking-water supply for more than 60 percent of the State’s population. The system includes the Scituate Reservoir and five tributary reservoirs with a maximum storage capacity of 37 billion gallons. The drainage basin that contributes water to the reservoir extends across 93 square miles in...

Below average and infrequent rainfall from May through September 2020 led to an extreme hydrologic drought across much of New England, with some areas experiencing a flash (quick-onset) drought.

Droughts are one of the most expensive and damaging hydrologic hazards in the United States. They are generally slow in developing, frequently occur over a long period of time, and can affect large areas and populations.

The USGS, in cooperation with the Town of Seabrook, New Hampshire and a private well owner, is assessing the variability of arsenic over multiple time scales. A network of three wells is being used to monitor changes in arsenic, arsenic species, a host of other chemical constituents, and the distribution of ages of groundwater entering the wells. The wells—one domestic bedrock aquifer well, one...

Monthly water use estimates for New England and the rest of the conterminous U.S. are now available for the three largest categories of use in the United States: public supply, crop irrigation, and thermoelectric power generation.

The USGS Soil-Water-Balance model (SWB) has been used to estimate potential recharge across the State of Maine. The average and range (minimum and maximum) of annual recharge were estimated for the 25-year period from 1990 to 2015. Datasets of estimated recharge and the modeled uncertainty in the recharge estimates are available for download.

The USGS, in cooperation with the Town of Barnstable and MassWildlife, is assessing the potential effects of new water-supply withdrawals on groundwater levels in the Hyannis Ponds Wildlife Management Area on Cape Cod. A groundwater-flow model is being used to simulate the effects of several possible withdrawal and wastewater-return flow scenarios developed by the Town of Barnstable and...

In 2018 USGS began work on the development of regional-scale groundwater flow and nitrogen transport models of areas along the Connecticut coast. The model will be used as a quantitative tool to evaluate groundwater flow and nitrogen loading to Long Island Sound.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been investigating groundwater and surface-water resources on Cape Cod for more than 50 years. Recent studies have focused on the sources of water to public-supply wells, ponds, streams, and coastal areas; transport and discharge of nitrogen and contaminants of emerging concern derived from domestic and municipal wastewater disposal; fate and transport of...