Wyoming Groundwater-Quality Monitoring Network

A wide variety of human activities has the potential to contaminate groundwater. In addition, naturally occurring constituents in groundwater can limit the suitability of that water for some uses. Baseline groundwater-quality data can be used to facilitate analysis of water-quality trends over time and to understand the effects of human activities. Such information is an important tool for protecting groundwater resources that are crucial for drinking water and other uses.

The USGS is working in cooperation with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality on the Wyoming Groundwater Quality Monitoring Network, the goal of which is to collect water-quality samples at 20-30 wells within each of 33 priority areas (Boughton, 2011). The project entails sampling existing shallow (less than or equal to 500 feet deep) wells to evaluate groundwater in priority areas where groundwater has been identified as an important source of drinking water for public and private water supplies, is susceptible to contamination, and is overlain by one or multiple land-use activities that could have negative effects on groundwater resources. Funding from the WLCI allows for additional wells to be sampled in priority areas within the Green River watershed.

Levels of numerous constituents in groundwater samples collected for the Wyoming Groundwater Quality Monitoring Network have exceeded State and Federal water-quality standards. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is using these data to determine whether groundwater quality is being adversely affected by overlying land uses, including oil and gas development. The outcomes of this work are expected to contribute baseline groundwater-quality data in support of the WLCI management need for an integrated inventory and monitoring strategy. Since FY2009, groundwater samples have been collected and analyzed from 26 (1 of which was resampled) wells in the Green River watershed, including 3 wells sampled in FY2014. All of the data are available on the USGS National Water Information System Web site at http://bit.ly/1ELgNcy.

Boughton, G.K., 2011, Wyoming groundwater-quality monitoring network: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2011-3041, 4 p. [Also available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2011/3041/.]

Products Completed in FY2014

• A map of all well sites sampled for this project and the water-level and water-quality data are available at http://bit.ly/1ELgNcy.
• Boughton, G.K., 2014, Groundwater-quality characteristics for the Wyoming Groundwater-Quality Monitoring Network, November 2009 through September 2012 (ver. 1.1, October 2014): U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5130, 80 p., at http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2014/5130/.

Products Completed in FY2013 

• 2013 groundwater-quality data, publically available at http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/wy/nwis/qw. 
• Boughton, G.K., 2014, Groundwater quality characteristics for the Wyoming Groundwater-Quality Monitoring Network, November 2009 - September 2012 (in press). 

Products Completed in FY2012

• 2012 groundwater-quality data, publically available at http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/wy/nwis/qw.
• Boughton, G.K., 2012, Wyoming groundwater-quality monitoring network, a poster presented at the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative Science Workshop, May 14-17, 2012, Rock Springs, Wyo. Report available at https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/54610ad6e4b0ba83040c59f0.

Products Completed in FY2011

• 2011 groundwater-quality data were made available online at USGS NWISWeb.
• A fact sheet on the Wyoming Groundwater-Quality Monitoring Network was published (http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2011/3041/).

Products Completed in FY2010

• 2010 groundwater-quality data were made available online at USGS NWISWeb.