WUDR Cooperative Funding Awards, FY23

Delaware

• Title: Improving Quality, Accuracy, and Accessibility of Allocated Water Withdrawals Records in Delaware to Support the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Division of Water, Resource Protection Section
• Summary: The objective of this project is to quality assure all existing digital records/data, incorporate all records into EQuIS, referenced by a unique identifier tied to the well or intake, improve the accuracy by including geospatial information on each individual well or intake, listing the water source and NAICS code for industrial sites. To achieve this objective, DOW staff and contracted employees will first access and review all existing databases (permit applications, permits, drilling logs, allocation reports, water use and water level records etc.) and create a standardized format for a comprehensive single database.

Illinois

• Title: Enhancing IWIP's Water Use Classification Capabilities to Align with USGS Data Standards and Better Assist UMRBA in Water Availability Assessments
• Summary: The Illinois State Water Survey will improve upon the efforts of breaking down water withdrawal data into more specific water use classification through the review of well records. The Illinois Water Inventory Program (IWIP) classifies water withdrawals by public water supplies, self-supplied industries, and agricultural irrigation. Further classification break downs into USGS water use categories (public supply, domestic, irrigation, thermoelectric power, industrial, mining, livestock, and aquaculture) are possible by sorting an individual well’s standard industrial classification(sic) code, a code established by the U.S. government that categorize entities by their industry type. The proposed work will, in short, improve the quality assurance of IWIP’s well data through a data review of the sic codes assigned to each well. The sic codes assigned to each well will then be used to separate Illinois water withdrawal data into USGS water use categories, providing data for water use categories at the USGS Tier 1 level that were previously unavailable.

Wisconsin

• Title: Quality Control Implementation on Existing and Future Self-Reported Monthly Water Withdrawals in support of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Water Use Database
• Summary: The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will implement automated quality control checks on both existing and future water use data entries. The existing Oracle database includes monthly estimates of water use from over 10,000 sources for over ten years. The data will be analyzed for potential outliers, which can then be flagged and potentially corrected. In addition to improving existing data, we will implement quality control checks upon data as it is entered into our database every year. Potential errors will be flagged, and the user may be able to correct the potential errors prior to finalizing their submission. These objectives would assist WDNR with establishing automatic QA/QC checks (Tier 2, Water-use database). Historical water use reports made prior to 2010 will be added to the database, including data for older high-capacity wells with well construction reports. The additional reports will improve the identification of geology and aquifers being utilized for groundwater withdrawals. This objective would assist WDNR with associating a withdrawal with an aquifer (USGS Tier 1 Irrigation – Golf Courses, Industrial). We will also evaluate the feasibility of developing a statewide spatial map of Wisconsin’s more than 600 municipal water supply service areas. A feasibility analysis will include developing a methodology for collecting and digitizing water supply service areas . Some service areas already exist in digitized GIS format, and some do not. This feasibility analysis will clarify the business needs for a statewide water supply service area GIS layer, create a methodology for developing that statewide layer, and include a pilot project to identify potentially common issues with integrating service areas from various sources. This objective would assist WDNR with improving population served estimates and determining interbasin transfers (USGS Tier 3 Public Supply)