Water Availability and 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.

The Current Period Streamflow Statistics project is computing low flow statistics for both a historic (1950-1979) and more recent (1990-2019) 30-year period. The computed statistics will provide information about streamflow changes over time and an evaluation of more recent streamflow conditions. The project will also present land-use changes, precipitation patterns, and water use in the...

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 As a result, estimates of the quantities of water withdrawn are based off of relatively small amounts of data.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 series of surficial aquifer studies were completed to evaluate the unconfined aquifer system of the NJ Coastal Plain for use as a potential source of water. As the demand for water in the State increases and the restrictions continue on the use of water from certain confined aquifers, withdrawals on the unconfined aquifer system are expected to increase. Detailed study of the unconfined...

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.

The New Jersey Pine Barrens, or Pinelands National Reserve (PNR), is a vast and unique ecosystem comprising approximately a 938,000-acre area of southern New Jersey. It spans portions of seven counties (Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Ocean), and all or part of 56 municipalities. It is home to dozens of rare plant and animal species, and the Kirkwood-Cohansey...

The NJ Coastal Plain RASA (Regional Aquifer System Analysis) model (in this document referred to simply as “the RASA model”) is one of the most widely used models by hydrologists in the NJWSC. This model was developed as part of the RASA program, which was started in 1978 after a congressional mandate to develop quantitative appraisals of the major groundwater systems of the United States.

The hydroecological integrity assessment process (HIP) has been fully developed for the State of New Jersey (NJHIP). The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is in the process of applying ecologically relevant ecological flow goals (ERHI's) from the NJHIP to current and future regulation of New Jersey streams. It is the goal of NJDEP to evaluate potential impacts of a proposed water...