Water Use and Availability

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

The USGS 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 Water Dashboard is a web mapping application that presents U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) real-time stream, lake, reservoir, precipitation, and well data in Texas in context with current weather and hazard conditions. Real-time measurements from over 750 USGS observation stations in Texas are accessible from the map viewer, along with complementary map layers such as current precipitation...

A new JavaScript library, called GWIS (Graphing Water Information System), can create time-series plots of information measured at U.S. Geological Survey hydrologic data collection sites across the US. Developed by the USGS Texas Water Science Center, the user-friendly interface integrates the open-source dygraphs JavaScript charting library with the hydrologic data provided by USGS water services...

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 new app was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center and is available at https://txpub.usgs.gov/houston_subsidence/.

GWWebFlow is a browser-based groundwater model viewer designed to allow users to easily explore model inputs and outputs for published and approved USGS models. It currently supports the MODFLOW family of models, including MODFLOW2005, MODFLOW-NWT, MT3DMS and SEAWAT.

The USGS 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...

Successful long term stewardship of Fort Bliss lands includes managing traditional hydrologic resources such as surface water and groundwater resources and increasingly, geologic resources such as geothermal reservoirs and deep well injection locations. The USGS Texas Water Science Center is developing a garrison-wide hydrogeologic atlas that describes the hydrology and hydrogeology of Fort Bliss...