Water Resources
How We Use Water
Data Visualization of Water Use in the U.S. 2015
Explore water use data by state and county for 2015
Learn MoreBrowse How We Use Water science related to:
Recreational Water Quality
People love to play in water. The USGS works to ensure that water in our nation’s streams, lakes, and oceans are suitable for the moments when you just need to jump in.
Water-Quality Benchmarks for Contaminants
How does the water quality measure up? It all depends on what the water will be used for and what contaminants are of interest. Water-quality benchmarks are designed to protect drinking water, recreation, aquatic life, and wildlife. Here you’ll find links to some of the most widely used sets of water, sediment, and fish tissue benchmarks and general guidance about their interpretation.
Linking Selenium Sources to Ecosystems: Local and Global Perspectives
The sources, biogeochemistry, and ecotoxicology of selenium (Se) combine to produce a widespread potential for ecological risk such as deformities in birds and fish. Linking the understanding of source characteristics to a mechanistic, biodynamic dietary model of Se exposure on an ecosystem-scale improves the prediction of Se effects and its potential remediation.
National Water Census: Regional Groundwater Availability Studies
The National Water Census includes regional analysis of groundwater availability, enabling information to be integrated and consistent so the resource can be analyzed and understood on an aquifer–wide scale. The NWC also seeks to increase capacity to integrate groundwater and surface water into watershed-level assessments of water availability.
Groundwater Quality in Principal Aquifers of the Nation, 1991–2010
What’s in your groundwater? Learn about groundwater quality in the Principal Aquifers of nine regions across the United States in informative circulars filled with figures, photos, and water-quality information.
Health-Based Screening Levels (HBSLs)
This searchable online database provides Health-Based Screening Levels (HBSLs) for hundreds of chemicals, including pesticides and degradates. HBSLs are non-enforceable benchmark concentrations of contaminants in water. These screening levels supplement federal drinking-water standards and guidelines.
Coastal Carolinas Focus Area Study
The USGS is undertaking a 3-year study of water availability and use to investigate competing societal and ecological needs in Southeastern Atlantic Coastal Basins of the Carolinas. This study will compile existing information, add new scientific data and interpretation, and develop tools to help resource managers and stakeholders address current and future water-use challenges.
Red River Focus Area Study
The USGS is undertaking a 3-year study of water use, availability, and change in the Red River basin, which covers more than 93,000 square miles in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Water resources are being stressed by increasing water demands and increasingly severe droughts, and a comprehensive water-resource assessment of the basin is needed to enable sustainable water...
Upper Rio Grande Basin Focus Area Study
USGS is undertaking a 3-year study of water use, availability, and change in the Upper Rio Grande Basin. This study area runs 670 miles from its headwaters in Colorado through New Mexico and northern Mexico to Texas, and will compile existing information and add new scientific data and interpretation to help stakeholders face current and future water issues.
Groundwater Quality—Current Conditions and Changes Through Time
Is groundwater the source of your drinking water? The USGS is assessing the quality of groundwater used for public supply using newly collected data along with existing water-quality data. Learn more about this invisible, vital resource so many of us depend on.
Predicting Groundwater Quality in Unmonitored Areas
Groundwater provides nearly one-half of the Nation’s drinking water, and sustains the steady flow of streams and rivers and the ecological systems that depend on that flow. Unless we drill a well, how can we know the quality of the groundwater below? Learn about how the USGS is using sophisticated techniques to predict groundwater quality and view national maps of groundwater quality.
Factors Affecting Vulnerability of Public-Supply Wells to Contamination
More than 100 million people in the United States—about 35 percent of the population—receive their drinking water from public-supply wells. These systems can be vulnerable to contamination from naturally occurring constituents, such as radon, uranium and arsenic, and from commonly used manmade chemicals, such as fertilizers, pesticides, solvents, and gasoline hydrocarbons. Learn about the...