Water Budgets

This project evaluates how groundwater withdrawals affect streamflow in the Humboldt River Basin. It focuses on understanding the timing, magnitude, and causes of streamflow depletion, including agricultural pumping and mine dewatering, to support sustainable water management in Nevada.

The Humboldt River flows east to west through north-central Nevada and is about 330 miles long. It is an important water source for residents and agriculture, and it also supports one of Nevada’s largest industries—gold mining. Most of the state’s mines are in the Humboldt River Basin along the Carlin Trend. Nevada produces about 72 percent of all U.S. gold, making it the fifth largest producer in...

Migratory wildlife need to balance the benefits of migration and reproduction with the physiological costs. This is particularly challenging in dynamic environments like wetlands, where food levels can vary greatly from year to year. For shorebirds in the Great Basin region, saline or terminal lakes provide essential habitats during their annual life cycle. To understand how changes in hydrology...

Walker Lake is one of the few natural terminal lakes in Nevada. The ecological and recreational value of Walker Lake and other terminal lakes in the Great Basin is at risk due to consumptive water use.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the process that transfers water from land surface to the atmosphere as evaporation (or sublimation when below freezing) from open water, soil, and plant canopies and as transpiration by plants. ET is measured by scientists for many different reasons. Hydrologists from the Nevada Water Scientist Center (NVWSC) typically measure ET to help quantify water budgets...

Elko County officials and citizens are concerned about growing demand for groundwater within the county and demands for groundwater that are occurring elsewhere in the state. Because the Humboldt River is fully appropriated, any additional water needed to support growth in the upper Humboldt River Basin will have to come from groundwater. County and state water-resource managers need information...

Stump Spring has been designated as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Hiko Springs currently is in the designation process. Both springs flow intermittently in drainages where the depth to groundwater is shallow. The shallow groundwater flowing to and from the springs sustain scarce desert riparian habitats. BLM has recognized a need for accurate...

The Diamond Valley flow system (DVFS) consists of six basins or hydrographic areas (HAs) in central Nevada: southern and northern Monitor Valleys, Antelope Valley, Kobeh Valley, Stevens Basin, and Diamond Valley. The six basins are, in part, hydrologically connected by ephemeral streams, by groundwater flow in shallow basin-fill aquifers, and, possibly, by subsurface flow in deeper carbonate-rock...

The USGS Nevada Water Science Center began an investigation in 2010 to quantify hydrologic effects of groundwater withdrawals on Truckee River streamflow in the Tracy Segment hydrographic area, Storey, Washoe and Lyon Counties, Nevada. Groundwater gradients have been monitored at sites near pumping wells and the river. Water-level fluctuations resulting from local pumping are interpreted with flow...

Supplementary water supplies are needed for a rapidly growing population in southern Nevada. Ground-water resources from basin-fill and consolidated rock aquifers in southern Spring and Snake valleys in eastern Nevada have been identified as a potential water-supply source. These aquifers provide water to springs, streams, wetlands, limestone caves, and other biologically sensitive areas on...