Now available on the Internet is a web site for the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program- High Plains Regional Ground-Water Study. The purpose of the web site is to provide public access to a wide variety of information on the USGS investigation of the ground-water resources within the High Plains aquifer system. Typical pages on the web site include the following: descriptions of the High Plains NAWQA, the National NAWQA Program, the study-area setting, current and past activities, significant findings, chemical and ancillary data (which can be downloaded), listing and access to publications, links to other sites about the High Plains area, and links to other web sites studying High Plains ground-water resources.
| URL: http://co.water.usgs.gov/nawqa/hpgw/HPGW_home.html |
The High Plains aquifer is a regional aquifer system that underlies 174,000 square miles in parts of eight States (Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming). Because the study area is so large, the Internet is an ideal way to provide project data and information on a near real-time basis. The web site will be a collection of living documents where project data and information are updated as it becomes available throughout the life of the project. If you have an interest in the High Plains area, you can check this site periodically to learn how the High Plains NAWQA activities are progressing over time and access new data and publications as they become available.
The environmental setting of the High Plains aquifer study area is described on this page. It includes information and figures describing the areal extent of the aquifer, the geology of the aquifer, ground-water flow direction within the aquifer, various uses of the ground-water resources, precipitation, various uses of the land overlying the aquifer, and the spatial distribution and amount of water-level declines and increases.
Activities-current and past-are described on this page and will be updated as the project progresses through the High Plains region. Work began in the central High Plains region and will progress to the southern and then the northern High Plains regions. A listing of the objectives, approach, timing, and targeted constituents is included for each activity. Studies and activities from previous fiscal years also are included on the page to indicate what already has been accomplished in each area of the High Plains.
Significant findings and conclusions from the individual studies and publications are posted on this page; for example, rates of occurrence and distribution of selected chemicals, extent of natural and anthropogenic factors affecting ground-water quality in different hydrogeologic units within the High Plains aquifer, and scientific knowledge gained from process-oriented studies.
All chemical, physical, and spatial data collected during the course of the High Plains Regional Ground-Water Study are made available to the public on this page. The chemical and physical data for each sampling site are organized by study activity and are available as tables for browsing or ASCII files for downloading for use in other computer programs such as spreadsheets or statistical packages. The data include: (1) physical information such as water-temperature measurements, electrical conductivity, and well-construction information; (2) chemical data from all ground- and surface-water sites; and (3) quality-control data associated with each sampling effort. The home page and data are updated as additional data become available.
The spatial data sets are geographic information system (GIS) themes that are available in a variety of formats for use in a GIS. Spatial data include themes such as streams, roads, cities, geology, population, and precipitation. More data sets will become available as they are developed and reviewed.
All abstracts and some complete publications of the High Plains Regional Ground-Water Study are available on this page. These include factsheets, reports, abstracts of journal articles, and meeting abstracts and/or papers. The publications are available as viewable HTML documents within the browser or viewable/downloadable PDF documents that retain all original document formatting.
Information about links to other web sites associated with the High Plains are on these two pages. These links are identified as Federal or State government, commercial/organization, education, or other. Specifically, the page entitled "Other Agencies Studying High Plains Ground-Water Resources" lists links to web sites of other entities that are actively involved in studies related to the ground-water resources of the High Plains. -By Sharon L. Qi
Project Manager, High Plains NAWQA
U.S. Geological Survey
Denver Federal Center, Mail Stop 415
Denver, Colorado 80225
(303) 236-4882
http://webserver.cr.usgs.gov/nawqa/hpgw/HPGW_home.html
| The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is conducting an assessment of ground-water quality in the High Plains aquifer as part of its National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. The long-term goals of NAWQA are to describe the status of and trends in the quality of a large representative part of the Nation's surface- and ground-water resources, and to identify major factors that affect the quality of these resources. The NAWQA Program focuses on water quality in more than 50 major river basins and aquifer systems across the Nation. The assessment activities in the High Plains NAWQA study area began in 1998. |