COLLECTION AND USE OF GROUNDWATER LEVEL DATA IN MISSOURI

The Missouri Geological Survey (MGS) was created in 1853 to collect information about Missouri's water, mineral, and energy resources. MGS has been collecting groundwater level data since 1956 in response to extreme drought conditions. What started out as approximately 20 observation wells grew to over 170. Currently, 150 wells collect groundwater level data across Missouri. These wells monitor water level in 13 different major aquifers within five U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) principal aquifers including the Ozark Plateaus Aquifer System, Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer, Cambrian-Ordovician Aquifer System, Mississippian Aquifer, and the sand/gravel aquifers. Missouri’s groundwater level data is served to the public via the USGS National Water Inventory System (NWIS).

MGS has received USGS funding for seven National Groundwater Monitoring Network (NGWMN) grants to do project associated with the network. These funds have been utilized to...

• Add well data to the NGWMN portal,
• Conduct surveys to verify site locations and elevation,
• Perform camera investigations to verify well construction and identify possible well issues,
• Reconstruct four wells,
• Conduct aquifer pump tests on 18 wells,
• Clean sediment and debris out of ten wells, and
• Purchase pressure transducers.

MGS maintains and collects groundwater level data and ensures it is accurate by following USGS data collection requirements. Water level data is collected every 30 minutes, is transmitted via the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (NOAA-GOES). USGS’s Central Midwest Water Science Center (CMWSC) performs data quality checks and serves the data on the NWIS website. The NGWMN portal then obtains Missouri groundwater level data from NWIS.

This water level data is used by wide ranging entities such state and federal government agencies, university researchers, consultants, and private citizens to assess various groundwater conditions and projects. These include development of groundwater models to determine aquifer characteristics, assessment of aquifer response to extreme hydrologic conditions such as flooding and drought, determination of potential well interference from pumping of the aquifer, impact to the aquifers from underground mining, and changes in water levels due to natural and man induced influences.