Southern Amargosa Desert Integrated Water-Level and Spring-Discharge Monitoring Network

Since the 1990s, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has collected and archived water-level and spring-discharge measurements from sites in the southern Amargosa Desert through funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Yucca Mountain Environmental Monitoring Program (YMEMP). In March 2009, however, this monitoring network was terminated. The set of baseline data collected from these sites help to provide an understanding of the potential for movement of groundwater across geologic structures in the area, and for early warning of pumping effects from groundwater withdrawals in the Amargosa Valley. Longer-term, baseline data records are important in evaluating potential new uses for groundwater supplies in the Amargosa Desert and Pahrump Valley.

The USGS currently is active in a cooperative effort of multiple natural-resource agencies (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office) to reestablish and maintain an integrated water-level and spring-discharge monitoring network in the southern Amargosa Desert. Each agency collects water-level and/or spring-discharge data at selected sites and submits these data to the USGS on a quarterly frequency. The USGS also collects and archives water-level and/or spring-discharge data at all sites not measured by other agencies. Moreover, the USGS stores all data collected from sites on the network in the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS); the water-level data also are available through this project website.

A calibrated electric tape used to measure depth to water in NA-6 Well.