Mission Areas
Water Resources
Water information is fundamental to national and local economic well-being, protection of life and property, and effective management of the Nation’s water resources. The USGS works with partners to monitor, assess, conduct targeted research, and deliver information on a wide range of water resources and conditions including streamflow, groundwater, water quality, and water use and availability.
USGS Water Data for the Nation
Surface-water, groundwater, water-quality, and water-use data collected at approximately 1.9 million sites across all 50 states.
Get DataMessage from the Associate Director for Water
Learn more about the WMA from Dr. Don Cline, the Associate Director for Water Resources.
ReadPopular Water Data and Tools
Explore our science by the topical areas that drive the research and projects conducted by our Programs.
USGS Water Data for the Nation
National Groundwater Monitoring Network Data Portal
More data and toolsNews
Software Release - RSPARROW: An R system for SPARROW modeling
RSPARROW, now available on the USGS GitLab repository, provides the first open-source version of the USGS SPARROW water-quality model, with new features that improve the utility of the model for conducting studies of contaminants in surface waters and informing water resource management decisions.
Equus Beds Aquifer Water Quality Nearly Unchanged between 2001 and 2016
Study Shows Water Quality Minimally Affected by Artificial Recharge
Groundwater age-dating simplified
A new USGS report documents a simple method to classify groundwater age as premodern (recharged before 1953), modern (recharge in 1953 or later), or a mix of the two. The method—tritium-based age classification, or TBAC—requires just a single measurement of tritium, along with knowledge of sample date and location...
Publications
Estimated use of water in Georgia for 2015 and water-use trends, 1985–2015
Water-withdrawal, water-use, and water-return information have been collected and compiled for each county in Georgia every 5 years since 1980 using data obtained from various Federal, State, and private agencies, as well as additional online sources. For 2015, water use, water withdrawal, and water returns were estimated for each county, water-...
Painter, Jaime A.
Escherichia coli in the Santa Cruz River in Tumacácori National Historical Park, Arizona
At Tumacácori National Historical Park in southern Arizona, resource managers are concerned about microbial pathogens in the Santa Cruz River that could pose a serious health risk to employees and visitors. The U.S. Geological Survey recently completed a comprehensive 3-year study of water quality in the Santa Cruz River watershed that...
Paretti, Nicholas V.
Spatial and temporal distribution of bacterial indicators and microbial-source tracking within Tumacácori National Historical Park and the upper Santa Cruz River, southern Arizona and northern Mexico, 2015–2016
Tumacácori National Historical Park (TUMA) in southern Arizona protects the culturally important Mission San José de Tumacácori, while also managing a part of the ecologically diverse riparian corridor of the Santa Cruz River. The quality of the water flowing through depends solely on upstream watershed activities, and among the water-quality...
Paretti, Nicholas V.; Kephart, Christopher M.; Porter, Thomas J.; Hermosillo, Edyth; Cederberg, Jay R.; Mayo, Justine P.; Gungle, Bruce W.; Coes, Alissa L.; Tucci, Rachel S.; Norman, Laura M.