Cooperative Water Program—

The Nation’s water resources—our rivers, lakes, and

aquifers—supply our drinking water, support our industries,

transport our products, and provide us with recreational

opportunities. These resources are vital to the long-term

health of our citizens and the stability of our economy.

Management of these resources is a complex task involving

all levels of government and a

multitude of laws, regulations, and

competing interests. The USGS

Cooperative Water Program has

been providing basic information

needed by water-resources managers across the Nation for over 100

years.

The USGS Cooperative Water

Program is an ongoing partnership between the USGS and

non-Federal agencies. The program jointly funds waterresources projects in every State, Puerto Rico, and several

U.S. Trust territories. Highly skilled USGS employees use

nationally consistent procedures and quality-assurance

protocols in conducting cooperative projects. These standards ensure that all data from the Cooperative Water

Program are directly comparable from one region to another

and available from USGS databases for use by citizens,

public officials, industry,

and scientists nationwide.

Agencies, or “Cooperators,” that participate in

the Cooperative Water

Program are primarily

State, Tribal, county, and

municipal agencies with

water-resources responsibilities. In 2001, nearly

1,400 Cooperators

participated in the program. Although the Program originated as a 50:50 fund-matching arrangement, Cooperator

funds have grown

faster than USGS

funds in recent years.

In 2001, Cooperative

Water Program funds

totaled $185.9

million. Cooperators

contributed $123.2

million or two-thirds

of that total.

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

USGS Fact Sheet -128-01

December 2001

“A better example of how all levels of government can work together to provide a service, in

this case, data collection, could not be found.”

—Alfred H. Vang, Deputy Director, South Carolina

Department of Natural Resources

Valued Cooperation

Work performed in the Cooperative Water Program is

jointly planned. This ensures that work simultaneously

meets the mission objectives of the USGS and the data and

information needs of the Cooperators. The result is a

national program that has broad relevance and widespread

use of its products. This significant tie to local and State water

resources needs also creates a

program that responds quickly to

emerging issues.

Cooperators choose to work

with the USGS because of the

agency’s unique technical expertise and commitment to provide

public access to data collected by the Cooperative Water

Program. Many cooperators want to work with USGS

because of its long-standing record of performing highquality, objective measurements and assessments. The

scientific, non-regulatory mission of the USGS means that

its data and analyses are accepted as valid by parties in

many types of regulatory and jurisdictional disputes.

Data and Information for Many

The Cooperative Water Program supports the collection

of basic hydrologic data, studies of specific water-resources

problems, and hydrologic research. In 2001, for example,

about 4,200 streamgages were operated and maintained

FUNDS (MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

FISCAL YEAR

$ 40 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

$ 60

$ 80

$100

$120

$140

Cooperators

USGS

Other

312

Indian

77

State

293 County

274

Municipal

435

Checking the health of the Nation’s rivers. Measuring flow from

a bridge near a USGS streamgage.

Number of Cooperators in 2001

science for a changing world

By Myron H. Brooks

A Partnership in the Nation’s Water-Resources Program
Alaska

Hawaii

EXPLANATION

Generally highest arsenic

concentrations

Insufficient data

Generally lowest arsenic

concentrations

For more information, contact:

Glenn Patterson, Program Coordinator

U.S. Geological Survey

409 National Center, Reston, VA 20192

(703) 648-6876

email: gpatter@usgs.gov

using Cooperative Water Program funds. The program also

funds approximately 750 interpretative projects targeted at

specific water-resources issues, such as the effects of

urbanization, agricultural practices, and energy development

on water quality.

Because data collected in the Cooperative Water

Program are directly comparable, regional and nationalscale syntheses of the data are possible. Examples of these

syntheses include using historical streamflow information to

evaluate regional drought and climate variability, and

development of a technique for estimating time of travel for

rivers, which provide information for estimating the arrival

time for accidental chemical spills.

More recently, an analysis of nationally consistent

information on arsenic concentrations in 18,000 wells

collected across the country, mainly through the Cooperative

Water Program, alerted EPA to potential problems in many

areas and is being used to formulate a new drinking-water

standard for arsenic. Hydrologic data and results of interpretive projects are published as USGS reports, which are

publicly available. In addition, more and more projects

result in Internet products ranging from descriptive home

pages and online reports, to interactive interfaces that allow

Nov

1999

DAILY DISCHARGE, CUBIC FEET PER SECOND

60000

10000

1000 Jan

2000

Mar

2000

May

2000

USGS 02225000 ALTAMAHA RIVER NEAR BAXLEY, GA

Provisional Data Subject to Revision

EXPLANATION

DAILY MEAN DISCHARGE

MEDIAN DAILY STREAMFLOW BASED ON 30 YEARS OF RECORD

MEASURED DISCHARGE

Jul

2000 Sep2000 Nov2000 Jan2001 Mar2001

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Sample hydrograph from the National Water Information System

(NWIS), which includes online access to millions of water records.

Arsenic concentrations in ground water, a map product of the

Cooperative Water Program (http://water.usgs.gov/coop/).

“In today’s climate of growing demands on, and increasing competition for, the Nation’s water resources, there is

an increased need for all types of water-related data and

analyses now and in the future. The Cooperative Water

Program offers the highest level of scientific knowledge,

objectivity, and technical expertise.”

—External Task Force Review of the United States Geological Survey Federal-State Cooperative Water Program,

August 1999

“Our community’s partnership with USGS is saving

hundreds of millions of dollars in meeting federal

mandates of the Clean Water and Endangered Species

Acts through the Federal State Cooperative Program”

—Bill Gaffi, General Manager, Unified Sewage Agency of

Washington County, Oregon

users to run predictive models and conduct sophisticated

statistical analyses using data that are available online.

Results from many interpretive studies, which are local or

regional in scope, have broad transferability to other parts of

the Nation where similar water-resources issues exist.

Data collected by the Cooperative Water Program are incorporated into the National Water Information System

(NWIS). NWIS contains hydrologic information collected by

the USGS during the past 120 years. It includes streamflow

data from 21,000 sites, water levels from over 1,000,000

wells, and chemical data from rivers, streams, lakes, springs,

and ground water at 338,000 sites. All of these data are publicly available, and can be readily accessed via the Internet

(http://water.usgs.gov/nwis/).

An external task force reviewed the Cooperative Water

Program in 1999. A report (USGS Circular 1192) describing

the review and its 57 recommendations can be found at

http://water.usgs.gov/pubs/circ/circ1192/.