Developing an Extensive Database of US Groundwater Wells

Tracking Groundwater Wells to Aid Water Sustainability

Groundwater is central to many natural resource issues, including water security, food production and climate change. Nearly 50% of United States homes, businesses and other civic institutions like schools meet their water needs with groundwater wells, and crop irrigation accounts for 71% of groundwater withdrawals in the U.S. as of 2019. Although groundwater wells are critical to our agricultural system, health and quality of life, effective management and sustainability efforts in the U.S. are hampered by the lack of a comprehensive, standardized database of these key resources.

This gap puts the country at a disadvantage; groundwater is threatened by overuse, contamination and extreme climate events such as droughts, which prevent groundwater levels from recharging, but not knowing where the wells are, and how they are used, prevents mitigation efforts.

To fill this gap, Dr. Landon Marston, associate professor at Virginia Tech in the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a FFAR New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Awardee, and his research team created the Database of Groundwater Wells in the United States (USGWD). This major undertaking builds significantly on previous initiatives by compiling records of over 14 million residential, municipal, agriculture and industry wells, among others, across the country installed since governing agencies began keeping records. The publicly available database is intended to be a crucial decision-support tool to improve groundwater management and conservation throughout the country. The comprehensive records include information about the wells’ purpose, location and other features.

Standardizing Data for a More Accurate Research Tool

Over the two and a half years it took to create the USGWD, Marston’s team worked with all 50 states and the federal government to comb through groundwater well data. The researchers met with several challenges – while most groundwater wells were created in the last 50-100 years, some records go as far back as the 18th century, and the earliest well in the database dates to 1763. Over the course of time and across state records, the researchers encountered inconsistencies, incompleteness of records and, due to the variety of sources, non-standardized data.

To standardize the records and attempt to fill gaps, the researchers cross-referenced state and county records to resolve discrepancies. They also defined and categorized attributes that were commonly reported across most of the states, pulling disparate yet related data into single groupings. The research included a quality control mechanism that ensured the reliability of the well locations and other critical data points.

To facilitate innovative research and better water management strategies, the database has two datasets: tabular, which includes well location, use and status; and geospatial, which contains location data that have been controlled for quality – excluding, for example, location information that is likely incorrect or incomplete.

Database statistics include:

• Nearly 60% of wells are used for domestic use, irrigation or groundwater monitoring.
• California has the most reported wells of all states (1,164,847), and New Hampshire has the least reported wells of all states (90), highlighting disparities in record keeping across states
• Seventy percent of active wells are in 11 states scattered across the country including California, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Texas, Florida, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
• Well installations increased exponentially after WWII and peaked near 2000.

Scientific Publications

More details about the project can be found in the Nature article, A Database of Groundwater Wells in the United States.