Project Overview

Full Title
Moore County Groundwater-Level Monitoring

Location
 Moore County, NC

Partner Agencies
Moore County Public Utilities

Project Chief
Jason M. Fine
jmfine@usgs.gov

Period of Project
2011 - present

Science Topic
Groundwater resources

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Moore County Groundwater-Level Monitoring

Project Summary

Background

Moore County is part of the Sand-hills region of southeastern North Carolina within the Coastal Plain physiographic province. The County's population has increased almost 17 percent from 2000 to 2009 years to 87,000 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). With this growing population comes a higher demand on the water resources of the County. The increasing demand for drinking water is one of the major issues facing the Moore County area. The Black Creek aquifer is the main source of potable water in the area. About 42 percent of the County relies on groundwater as a source of water, which is supplied by both private homeowner and public supply wells. During the recent droughts, water suppliers have had to carefully plan and balance maintaining an adequate water-supply and meeting in-stream flow requirements. This planning requires accurate information on surface and groundwater conditions.

Objectives

The principal study objective is to collect water-level data at existing monitoring wells to establish a long-term data set that can be used to monitor changes in water levels and to aid in the future management of the county's groundwater resources.

Approach

As part of the cooperative ground-water study between the USGS and Moore County, a network of monitoring-well sites with groundwater-level recorders was established at selected available locations in Moore County. A summary of the wells and their locations for monitoring water-level conditions in the Black Creek aquifer is provided in table 1. Groundwater levels at each well are measured at 15-minute intervals, and the measurements are logged by a data recorder and transmitted via satellite to USGS servers. The data are then made available in near real-time on the internet through NWISWeb.