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Do you depend on groundwater? Groundwater is withdrawn from the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system for multiple uses including public supply, domestic use, industrial purposes, mining, livestock watering, aquaculture, and irrigation of crops.

A total of 380 million gallons per day of groundwater was pumped from Ozark system aquifers in 2010 (U.S. Geological Survey, 2015), excluding 10 counties along the eastern border that likely withdraw water from the shallow alluvial aquifers (Hays and others, 2016). Of the total groundwater pumped, approximately 212 million gallons per day (or 56 percent) was used for public supply and domestic self-supply, highlighting the importance of groundwater as a drinking-water source in the Ozark system.

Water-use categories on this map are grouped based on modeling efforts from Knierim and others (2016, 2017): non-agriculture includes mining, commercial, industrial, and thermo-electric power generation, and agriculture includes irrigation and aquaculture (Knierim and others, 2017).

See Also

For more information on the USGS Regional Groundwater Studies, please visit the USGS Groundwater Resources Program.

Hays, P.D., Knierim, K.J., Breaker, B.K., Westerman, D.A., and Clark, B.R., 2016, Hydrogeology and hydrologic conditions of the Ozark Plateaus Aquifer System: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5137, 73 p., accessed November 28, 2016.

Knierim, K.J., Nottmeier, A.M., Worland, Scott, Westerman, D.A., and Clark, B.R., 2016, Groundwater withdrawal rates from the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system, 1900 to 2010: U.S Geological Survey.

Knierim, K.J., Nottmeier, A.M., Worland, S., Westerman, D.A., and Clark, B.R., 2017, Challenges for creating a site-specific groundwater-use record for the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system (central USA) from 1900 to 2010: Hydrogeology Journal, p. 1-15.

U.S. Geological Survey, 2015, USGS Water Use in the United States, accessed June 20, 2016.