Washington Water Science Center
Water Availability and Use
WAWSC scientists provide data and tools to State, Local, Tribal and Federal water managers to assist them in best allocating groundwater supplies while also meeting both instream and out-of-stream demands. We characterize local- to regional-scale aquifer systems, measure basin water budgets and interactions between groundwater and surface water, and develop numerical models to understand how extensively-managed hydrologic systems respond to changes. Issues being addressed include predicting the effects of alternative water-resource management strategies, conjunctive groundwater and surface-water uses, climate change, and growing water demands. We also are working to understand how these changes may affect saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifers, and discharge of groundwater into stream, wetland, and estuarine habitats.
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Hydrochemical Analysis of Groundwater in Jewel Cave National Monument
The Issue: The park’s landscape and geomorphology is characterized as a carbonate karst environment, with sinking streams and fast connections between surface water and groundwater, resulting in high vulnerability of contamination to groundwater. Now that subterranean lakes have been discovered in Jewel Cave, understanding the groundwater connection of the lakes therein to the...
Assess the utility of a regional aquifer system groundwater model to inform the USGS National Hydrologic Model
The Issue: In Washington State, groundwater (GW) inflow to streams, or baseflow, is essential for maintaining aquatic habitats, and for out-of-stream uses such as irrigated agriculture during the typically dry summers. However, the National Hydrologic Model (NHM) currently is most suited to predicting total daily streamflow.
This project aims to assess the NHM’s...
Walla Walla Groundwater
The Issue: Within the states of Washington and Oregon, the 1,777 mi2 Walla Walla River Basin (WWRB) is a complex hydrogeologic system with long-term water-level declines in regional aquifers and insufficient instream flows required for threatened and culturally important fish populations. The public and state resource management agencies need an improved...
Southeast Sound Groundwater Flow Model
The Issue: Groundwater is an important resource for domestic, commercial, and industrial usage in the Puyallup River and Chambers-Clover Creek Watersheds, and groundwater discharge helps maintain late-summer and early-fall streamflow (baseflow) in many area streams. Consequently, as the population grows, and commercial and industrial activity increase, so does the demand for...
Puget Sound Groundwater Low Flows Near Term Action Project
The Issue: Groundwater discharge to streams and rivers in the Puget Sound basin is the primary source of water for sustaining summer low flows. A robust understanding of how anthropogenic and natural stressors affect summer low flows across the entire Puget Sound Regional Aquifer System is lacking, and USGS has tools and data—including current water-use data and subbasin-scale...
Chambers-Clover Model
The Issue: In 1998, to address diminishing water availability and quality and the loss of critical habitat for fish and wildlife, Washington State enacted the Watershed Management Act. Under this Act, in the process of watershed planning for the Chambers-Clover Creek Watershed in Pierce County, Planning Unit members and partners uncovered gaps in data that would limit the...
Characterization and Numerical Simulation of the Puyallup River Watershed
Groundwater is an important resource for domestic, commercial, and industrial usage in the Puyallup River Watershed, and groundwater discharge helps maintain late-summer and early-fall streamflow (baseflow) in many area streams. Consequently, as the population grows, and commercial and industrial activity increase, so does the demand for groundwater. However, the quantity of usable groundwater...
Quincy Groundwater
The Issue: Since 1952, water diverted from the Columbia River for irrigation in parts of the Quincy Subarea in eastern Washington has resulted in rising groundwater levels and increased groundwater flows and storage. Managers of groundwater in the area need a better understanding of the flow system before and after the start of irrigation.
How the USGS will help...
Water use
The Issue: Comprehensive water-use data and analysis of water-use information are needed to quantify the stress on existing supplies and to better model and evaluate possible water-supply management options to supplement traditional water-supply approaches. Advances have been made in the ability to control, divert, and develop water, but little attention has been paid to...
Spokane Valley - Rathdrum Prairie
The Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie aquifer, which extends across Idaho and Washington, is the sole source of drinking water for more than 450,000 people. Recently submitted water-rights requests would substantially increase withdrawals from the aquifer. The public and state resource management agencies need an improved understanding of the SVRP hydrologic system in order to ensure appropriate...
Quinault Groundwater
The Issue: Located on the north coast of Washington within the Queets-Quinault Watershed, the Quinault Indian Nation's coastal communities rely on groundwater as their sole source of drinking water. Climate change can directly affect groundwater throughout the watershed, particularly worrisome in vulnerable coastal aquifers. The Quinault Indian Nation will be collecting...
Mason County
The Issue: Groundwater is an important resource for domestic, commercial, and industrial usage in Mason County, and groundwater discharge helps maintain late-summer and early-fall streamflow (baseflow) in many area streams. Consequently, as the population grows, and commercial and industrial activity increase, so does the demand for groundwater. However, the quantity of usable...