The Geological Survey's Water Resources Division has for many years maintained a program of water-resources investigations that includes the coal regions of Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. These programs have been supported by State and local agencies and by other agencies of the Federal government, largely to provide data for water-resources development projects, allocations of water, and to inventory of water resources for future planning.
The recent interest in coal has added new dimensions and greater intensity to the investigations. The work has expanded to include monitoring the environmental effects of coal mining and processing and to determine the availability of additional water supplies for coal-conversion plants and related demands.
New objectives are now reflected in the program. Much of the work is to assist the Bureau of Land Management in its responsibilities to minimize the possible detrimental effects of coal mining on the public resource lands. The Environmental Protection Agency also supports a significant part of the program. Their support is to assure that water-quality information is collected at key locations, with types of water-quality data and frequency of sampling needed by that agency in the discharge of its function. Relatively large increases in the program have been funded by direct appropriation to the Geological Survey.
This report describes the water-resources investigation program that is currently in operation. Locations of gaging stations and water-quality measuring sites, frequencies and parameters, and areas of groundwater studies are included in this report. Brief descriptions of coal-related studies by investigators who are headquartered outside the Northern Great Plains coal regions are also included. Such studies are research in topics related to coal extraction, water supply, and post-mining reclamation
