Water Use and Availability

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and USGS will jointly lead the development of foundational components for region-wide monitoring.

The USGS Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center provided Big Bend National Park with a comprehensive assessment of the status of instream and riparian-zone biological resources along with information and tools needed by Park staff to address the effects of continued low flows and water-quality degradation of the Rio Grande through Big Bend National Park.

The Texas Gulf Coast Groundwater and Land Subsidence Program web application illustrates how groundwater, sediment compaction, and land-elevation change are related in the Houston-Galveston region in Texas.

The USGS Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center is evaluating the water-quality effects of certain herbicides used in Arundo cane eradication along the Rio Grande from Del Rio downstream to the confluence with Sycamore Creek (approximately 10 miles), along which the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB) will be conducting cane eradication using herbicides.

USGS is undertaking a 3-year study of water use, availability, and change in the Upper Rio Grande Basin in one of several national “Focus Area Studies” in the Department of Interior’s WaterSMART initiative. The Upper Rio Grande study area runs 670 miles from its headwaters in Colorado through New Mexico and northern Mexico to Ft. Quitman, Texas. Along its river corridor, it is a primary source of...

The USGS is undertaking a 3-year study of water use, availability, and change in the Red River basin in one of several national “Focus Area Studies” in the Department of Interior’s WaterSMART initiative . The Red River basin covers more than 93,000 square miles in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana with a population of about 4.3 million people. Water resources in the basin are...

In 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the San Antonio Water System, began a study to refine previously derived estimates of groundwater outflows from Medina and Diversion Lakes in south-central Texas near San Antonio.

In 2014, USGS, in cooperation with Llano Estacado Underground Water Conservation District, Sandy Land Underground Water District, and South Plains Underground Water Conservation District, began a multiphase project to develop a regional conceptual model of the hydrogeologic framework and geochemistry of the Ogallala, Edwards-Trinity, and Dockum aquifers. The Ogallala aquifer is the shallowest...

USGS Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center scientists are evaluating potential changes in the hydrologic budget, specifically evapotranspiration, as a result of brush management (applied to huisache) as a conservation practice.

USGS is undertaking a 5-year study to assess groundwater availability for the aquifers proximal to the Gulf of America from the Texas-Mexico border through the panhandle of Florida, known as the Coastal Lowlands Aquifer System (CLAS). This study is one of several within the Regional Groundwater Availability Studies of the USGS Water Availability and Use Science Program.

Evapotranspiration is the evaporation of water from plant leaves and the ground surface and is an important component of a water budget. The USGS Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center (OTWSC) monitors evapotranspiration rates to evaluate how changes in land cover and soil moisture content may change water budgets. Visit the links below for more information on our data and science.

The USGS Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center (OTWSC) has studies looking at the occurrence and impact of invasive species in Oklahoma and Texas. Visit the links below for more information on our data and science.