Spring 2013 Water Seminar Series - "The High Plains Groundwater Availability Study: Abundant Groundwater Doesn't Necessarily Mean Abundant Surface Water"

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Groundwater Resources Program is conducting an assessment of groundwater availability to gain a clearer understanding of the status of the Nation’s groundwater resources and the natural and human factors that can affect those resources. Additional goals are to better estimate availability and suitability of those resources in the future for various uses.                                         The High Plains aquifer is a nationally important water resource that underlies about 174,000 square miles in parts of eight western states. The aquifer serves as a primary source of drinking water for approximately 2.3 million people and also sustains more than one quarter of the Nation’s agricultural production. In 2000, total water withdrawals of 17.5 billion gallons per day from the aquifer accounted for 20 percent of all groundwater withdrawn in the United States, making it the most intensively pumped aquifer in the Nation. In the Central and Southern High Plains, the aquifer historically had less saturated thickness, and current resource management issues are focused on the availability of water, and reduced ability to irrigate as water levels and well productivity have declined. In contrast, the Northern High Plains aquifer includes the thickest part of the aquifer and a larger saturated thickness than the other parts of the aquifer, and current water resource management issues are related to the interaction of groundwater with surface water and resource management triggered primarily by the availability of surface water.   The presentation will cover major components of the High Plains Groundwater Availability Study, including estimating water budget components for the entire High Plains aquifer, building a refined groundwater model for the Northern High Plains aquifer, and using that model to better understand surface- and groundwater interaction and characterize water availability.