Catawba Wateree Water Management Group 2015 Annual Report

USGS Catawba-Wateree Groundwater Network Project

CWWMG committed more than $550,000 over four years to improve three existing groundwater monitoring wells and to install seven new wells located in both North and South Carolina. All wells are in place and are being managed by the United States Geological Survey with funding from the CWWMG.

The objective of this project is to construct a groundwater-level monitoring network for the Basin to assist water managers in assessing hydrologic and water supply conditions, particularly during times of drought. The constructed wells (10 well clusters of two wells each) are instrumented with near real-time water-level monitoring equipment with data available every hour via USGS web pages.

These water-level data can be used to establish critical “trigger” levels for groundwater conditions, as part of the Basin’s water-resource monitoring effort. Scientists from the USGS, Duke Energy, and stakeholder groups have been working together in an effort to assess hydrologic conditions and determine critical groundwater levels for the Basin.