Duties

What does the Groundwater Management Branch do?

The Groundwater Management Branch's role within the Division of Water Resources is to investigate North Carolina's groundwater resources and the present and potential demands on these resources. When water use conflicts, or quality concerns, or water shortages occur, the Branch can do studies and recommend alternatives including Capacity Use Designations and other measures to resolve problems. Mapping aquifers, tracking water use, and estimating future conditions are accomplished by employing methods described in the Research and Analysis Techniques portion of this web page. Once the facts of the situation are known, then Branch employees work to educate water users and manage use of the groundwater system.

The Branch frequently helps individual citizens throughout North Carolina, engineering and hydrogeological consultants from many states including North Carolina, and other local, State, and Federal government agencies. The Branch assists the Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources with mining permit applications and we work with the United States Geological Survey to monitor many wells throughout North Carolina. We also keep the Environmental Management Commission abreast of developing groundwater resource management issues. Lastly, as a result of our studies we have brought together a great deal of hydrogeological data including groundwater levels, hydrogeologic framework, digitized geophysical logs, and groundwater quality parameters. We are committed to give the general public access to that data.

Links

• Regulate Water Use in the Central Coastal Plain Capacity Use Area
• Groundwater Management Branch Data Base Access Page
• Groundwater Quality in North Carolina