Groundwater technical procedures of the U.S. Geological Survey

Abstract

A series of groundwater technical procedures documents (GWPDs) has been released by the U.S. Geological Survey, Water-Resources Discipline, for general use by the public. These technical procedures were written in response to the need for standardized technical procedures of many aspects of groundwater science, including site and measuring-point establishment, measurement of water levels, and measurement of well discharge. The techniques are described in the GWPDs in concise language and are accompanied by necessary figures and tables derived from cited manuals, reports, and other documents. Because a goal of this series of procedures is to remain current with the state of the science, and because procedures change over time, this report is released in an online format only. As new procedures are developed and released, they will be linked to this document. This report compiles techniques for groundwater-site establishment, well maintenance, water-level measurements, groundwater-discharge measurements, and single-well aquifer tests. It does not document groundwater-quality techniques. These procedures can be found in "U.S. Geological Survey, National Field Manual for the Collection of Water Quality Data." Many of the methods described in the GWPDs are based on United States Office of Water Data Coordination (1977), Garber and Koopman (1968), and Driscoll (1986).