Ground-water flow in the Gulf Coast aquifer systems, south-central United States

The Gulf Coast regional aquifer systems constitute one of the largest, most complicated, and most interdependent aquifer systems in the United States. Ground-water flow in a 230,000-square-mile area of the south-central United States was modeled for the effect of withdrawing freshwater at the rate of nearly 10 billion gallons per day in 1985 from regional aquifers in the Mississippi Embayment, the Texas coastal uplands, and the coastal lowlands aquifer systems. The 1985 rate of pumping was three times the average rate of recharge to the aquifers before development. The report also estimates the effects of even greater withdrawal rates in the aquifer systems. About two-thirds of the water in the aquifers is saline to brine, which complicates the modeling. Land subsidence due to water withdrawal also was modeled.