Water Use

The future health and welfare of the Nation's population and environment are dependent upon a continuing supply of uncontaminated fresh water. Increasing withdrawals and increasing demands for in-stream flows are limiting the water available for future use.

The purpose of the Program is to develop a sound understanding of the potential for development of potable groundwater supply in selected African countries and build local capacity to plan and conduct the hydrologic investigations and monitoring necessary to help ensure that groundwater resources are developed and managed efficiently and sustainably.

An online geonarrative consisting of an interactive discussion and maps of the groundwater resources of 10 confined aquifers beneath Central and Southern New Jersey, provides a view of the geology, hydrology and water use in this area. A regional-scale groundwater-level survey of the New Jersey Coastal Plain by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is highlighted. These assessments, performed every 5...

The primary source of self-supplied domestic water use is from private wells which are often unmonitored. As a result, estimates of the quantities of water withdrawn are based off of relatively small amounts of data. To gain a better understanding of this type of water use, a project was initiated in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to meter private domestic...

The following terms have been used in one or more of the water-use publications. The comparison of water-use categories over the history of these reports may also help clarify the use of some of the terms.

The State of New Jersey strives to allocate water resources to meet human demands and ecological needs. The New Jersey Water Transfer Data Model (NJWaTr) is a database system that compiles, stores, and distributes New Jersey’s water use data for research and modeling purposes. NJWaTr helps officials understand the movement and uses of water throughout the State over time.

Streamflow data collection and analysis are a necessary component of effective water resource management and planning. Low-flow statistics are needed to safely allow withdrawals from and discharges to surface waters in the State of New Jersey. Operating streamflow gaging stations at every water use location would be ideal but is cost prohibitive. Statistics help extend the utility of available...

NAWQA is a program from the USGS that addresses the goals of that status of surface-water and groundwater, provide understanding of human impact, and to support local, state, and federal agencies with aforementioned data.

The pace of development in Hopewell Township increased substantially in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Concurrent with this has been an increased awareness of the township’s finite water resources and the potential for environmental degradation from increased ground-water withdrawals and reduced ground-water recharge. The goal of this project is to provide a long-term, easily accessed data base...

Ground water is an important source of water supply and has a critical role in maintaining the health of aquatic freshwater and estuarine ecosystems in the Delaware Bay and Atlantic Coastal drainage basins of southeast New Jersey, including the Lower Maurice River and Cohansey Rive. In the coming years, the need for water supply is expected to grow and the priority of maintaining dependent...

Development of water supply is a dynamic condition, and demand areas may shift, or quality or quantity concerns may change in a former study area. This program will address the need of the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to understand the possible effects of proposed or planned withdrawals within these previously studied areas. The general objective of this program is to...

In the New Jersey Coastal Plain, where confined aquifers provide over 200 million gallons per day, effective water resource planning and management under increasingly complex circumstances requires a current and improving understanding of the limitations of the available water from confined aquifers, the interconnections between confined and unconfined aquifers, and the sources of flow to critical...