Groundwater withdrawals from the Hueco Bolson, Mesilla Basin, and the Rio Grande alluvium in El Paso and Hudspeth Counties, Texas, 1980-2018

This data release contains compiled groundwater withdrawal data from 1980 to 2018 for the Hueco Bolson, Mesilla Basin, and the Rio Grande alluvium in El Paso and Hudspeth Counties, Texas. Most groundwater withdrawal volumes were distributed to wells and separated into water-use categories. The data were compiled, distributed, and categorized as part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s involvement in the Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program. The Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Act was originally signed into Public Law 109-448 by the 109th United States Congress in 2006. This law directed the Secretary of Interior to establish a U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program (TAAP) to systematically assess priority aquifers along the U.S.-Mexico international boundary. The priority aquifers that were specified include the Hueco Bolson and Mesilla Basin in Texas and New Mexico, and the Santa Cruz and San Pedro aquifers in Arizona. The TAAP was established in 2009 after binational negotiations led to the signing of the "Joint Report of the Principal Engineers Regarding the Joint Cooperative Process United States-Mexico for the Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program" (International Boundary and Water Commission, 2009; U.S. Geological Survey, 2018). TAAP research in the United States is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey, Arizona Water Resources Research Center, New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute, and the Texas Water Resources Institute (U.S. Geological Survey, 2019).