Water Availability and Use

The Issue: Guemes Island is an 8.2-square-mile island in the northern part of Puget Sound in western Washington State. The population of the island is increasing, as is the demand for groundwater, which is the island's sole source of freshwater. Continued growth and development of the island, particularly in nearshore areas, has led to the increasing failure of nearshore wells due to seawater...

The Issue: Water supply for park operations and backcountry users is determined by the spatial extent of perennial streams in Mount Rainier National Park (MORA). In addition, the presence or absence of streamflow (flow permanence) is related to water temperature, which influences the occurrence and distribution of aquatic species including cold-water fishes and insects. Information about the...

The Issue: The park’s landscape and geomorphology is characterized as a carbonate karst environment, with sinking streams and fast connections between surface water and groundwater, resulting in high vulnerability of contamination to groundwater. Now that subterranean lakes have been discovered in Jewel Cave, understanding the groundwater connection of the lakes therein to the lakes in nearby Wind...

The Issue: In Washington State, groundwater (GW) inflow to streams, or baseflow, is essential for maintaining aquatic habitats, and for out-of-stream uses such as irrigated agriculture during the typically dry summers. However, the National Hydrologic Model (NHM) currently is most suited to predicting total daily streamflow. This project aims to assess the NHM’s performance in simulating baseflow...

The Issue: Decades of declining groundwater levels in the Walla Walla River Basin (WWRB), which spans Oregon and Washington, are affecting instream flows for threatened and culturally important fish populations and water availability for competing interests across state lines. The public and state resource management agencies have begun implementing efforts to stabilize groundwater levels and...

The Issue: Groundwater is an important resource for domestic, commercial, and industrial usage in the Puyallup River and Chambers-Clover Creek Watersheds, and groundwater discharge helps maintain late-summer and early-fall streamflow (baseflow) in many area streams. Consequently, as the population grows, and commercial and industrial activity increase, so does the demand for groundwater. However...

The Issue: Groundwater discharge to streams and rivers in the Puget Sound basin is the primary source of water for sustaining summer low flows. A robust understanding of how anthropogenic and natural stressors affect summer low flows across the entire Puget Sound Regional Aquifer System is lacking, and USGS has tools and data—including current water-use data and subbasin-scale groundwater models...

The Issue: In 1998, to address diminishing water availability and quality and the loss of critical habitat for fish and wildlife, Washington State enacted the Watershed Management Act. Under this Act, in the process of watershed planning for the Chambers-Clover Creek Watershed in Pierce County, Planning Unit members and partners uncovered gaps in data that would limit the usefulness of their plan...

Groundwater is an important resource for domestic, commercial, and industrial usage in the Puyallup River Watershed, and groundwater discharge helps maintain late-summer and early-fall streamflow (baseflow) in many area streams. Consequently, as the population grows, and commercial and industrial activity increase, so does the demand for groundwater. However, the quantity of usable groundwater...

The Issue: Since 1952, water diverted from the Columbia River for irrigation in parts of the Quincy Subarea in eastern Washington has resulted in rising groundwater levels and increased groundwater flows and storage. Managers of groundwater in the area need a better understanding of the flow system before and after the start of irrigation. How the USGS will help: In a joint effort with Washington...

The Issue: Comprehensive water-use data and analysis of water-use information are needed to quantify the stress on existing supplies and to better model and evaluate possible water-supply management options to supplement traditional water-supply approaches. Advances have been made in the ability to control, divert, and develop water, but little attention has been paid to keeping accurate accounts...

RRAWFLOW: Rainfall-Response Aquifer and Watershed Flow Model