The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), in partnership with its cooperators, continues to install and monitor automatic water-level recorders in observation (recorder) wells throughout the state. The TWDB recorder well network complements non-automated groundwater level monitoring programs conducted by groundwater conservation districts and other cooperators such as the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Edwards Aquifer Authority conducts both automated and manual monitoring of indicator wells in the Edwards (Balcones Fault Zone) Aquifer in South Texas, but wells in these programs are not included in this report.
This report discusses the water-level changes observed from 2014 to 2015 in 175 recorder wells operating in the network, which includes 155 recorder wells in the state’s nine major aquifers, 17 recorder wells in eight minor aquifers, and 3 recorder wells in three undesignated aquifers. The TWDB posts hydrographs and daily water-level measurements from these wells at waterdatafortexas.org/groundwater/. This report does not include water-level data from those recorder wells that were added to the network during 2015.
Since 2011 the recorder well network has expanded by 34 percent. More recorder wells exist in areas where water-level declines have been documented, such as in the Ogallala Aquifer in the High Plains (25 wells) and in the Trinity Aquifer in northern Central Texas (19 wells), and recently in areas where groundwater use is increasing, such as the Trinity Aquifer in Central Texas (46 wells). Of the 155 recorders in major aquifers discussed in this report, 58 percent are completed in the Ogallala or Trinity aquifers. Some groundwater conservation districts have also been able to add more recorders in wells in their counties for a number of reasons. In an effort to install recorders in counties and aquifers where none currently exist and to supplement the agency’s budget dedicated to recorder equipment maintenance, the TWDB’s “Recorder Water-Level Data in Every Texas County” initiative was accepted as a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Supplemental Environmental Project in 2014 (see www.tceq.texas.gov/compliance/enforcement/sep/sep-main). This program allows certain monetary settlements of TCEQ enforcement actions to be directed to the TWDB specifically for maintenance and replacement of recorder equipment and installation of recorders at new sites to fill such gaps.
For the first time in five years, more recorder wells experienced water-level rises at the end of 2015 than declines. In recorder wells in the major aquifers, the median water-level change was a rise of 1.3 feet from 2014 to 2015 with 69 percent of wells experiencing water-level rises. The median change from 2013 to 2014 was a decline of 1.2 feet with 73 percent of wells experiencing decline; from 2012 to 2013, a decline of 0.5 feet with 68 percent of wells experiencing decline; from 2011 to 2012, a decline of 0.9 feet with 75 percent of wells experiencing decline; and from 2010 to 2011, a decline of 4.8 feet with 92 percent of wells experiencing decline. Considering only those recorder wells in major aquifers that experienced water-level declines in the last five years, the amount of yearly decline (expressed as a median value) was 0.7 feet at the end of 2015, 2.0 feet at the end of 2014, 1.7 feet at the end of 2013, 1.9 feet at the end of 2012, and 4.9 feet at the end of 2011. For only those wells that experienced water-level rises, the median value was 3.7 feet at the end of 2015, 1.9 feet at the end of 2014, 2.5 feet at the end of 2013, 1.9 feet at the end of 2012, and 1.5 feet at the end of 2011.
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