WATER QUALITY SITE SELECTION AND DATABASE MANAGEMENT OF WELLS AND SPRINGS IN UTAH FOR THE NATIONAL GROUND-WATER MONITORING NETWORK

The Utah Geological Survey (UGS) established a groundwater monitoring network in Utah to contribute to the National Ground-Water Monitoring Network (NGWMN) in 2014. Our monitoring network is widespread and comprehensive, consisting of approximately 100 wells and springs, with lab analysis provided by the U.S. EPA. The primary goal of this project is to document water-quality changes over time by sampling annually. Additional goals are to document water resources in a well administered and maintained database and integrate our state-level data with a national-level database.

Our site selection criteria follows guidelines of the Subcommittee on Groundwater Framework Document; the primary site selection criteria are accessibility and representativeness of aquifers of interest. Most of the sites in the UGS network are designated for trend monitoring, where samples are collected yearly. The priority is to characterize the water quality of key aquifers in Utah. To ensure high accessibility, most of the wells in our network are regularly pumped and privately owned. We chose wells with well logs or sufficient aquifer information to ensure that they are representative of the aquifer of interest. We sample about 35 springs throughout the state, ranging from smaller springs in mountain blocks or mountain fronts to large regional springs. Selected springs are (1) accessible sampling points that represent major aquifer chemistry where no nearby well is available, (2) large springs that represent the integrated aquifer chemistry for an entire drainage basin, or (3) springs in mountain areas that represent chemistry of waters recharging the adjacent aquifers.

We are cooperating with the USGS to maintain a connection between the UGS Water-Quality Network and the NGWMN, and we are providing the NGWMN with selected sites and related quality controlled data. Future plans are to expand our network to provide water-level data from select sites.