GROUNDWATER MONITORING IN ALABAMA: INFORMING STATE WATER POLICY AND MANAGEMENT DECISIONS

The Geological Survey of Alabama (GSA) conducts state-wide groundwater monitoring to provide data that can be used to make informed management, policy, and resource allocation decisions. This information is fundamental for long-term sustainability, economic growth, future water policy analysis, and the preservation of the natural environment as groundwater systems are stressed by natural and anthropogenic forcings. GSA maintains two monitoring networks, a real-time network and a periodic network, to collect data. Wells in each network are classified based on anthropogenic influences using categories defined by the Advisory Committee on Water Information: background, suspected changes, and documented changes. The real-time network comprises background and suspected change wells and provides data from the state’s principal aquifers. Wells in the network are equipped with pressure transducers that relay water level and temperature data to the GSA through cellular services. The periodic network contains wells manually measured in the spring and fall months. These networks are supplemented by transducer-equipped wells in karst systems that contain listed and/or endangered aquatic species habitats. Data from each of the networks is available through on-line access via the GSA website and is served to the USGS National Groundwater Monitoring Network. Water-level data from selected real-time wells is used each month during the spring, summer, and fall months by members of the Alabama Drought Monitoring and Impact Group as a component of state drought declarations. Time-series data from wells in the real-time network has been evaluated using spectral analysis, seasonal and trend decomposition, and cross-spectrum analysis to establish water level response times to climatic events to support these deliberations. The techniques are also employed to examine major aquifer long-term water-level trends. Information from the networks is presented in a new report that also includes water use, precipitation, and surface water data on a watershed scale designed to demonstrate the conjunctive relationships between groundwater and surface water. These efforts are intended to provide local- and state-level managers and policy makers with information that can ensure that water policy decisions with long-term consequences are based on up-to-date scientific information.