The U.S. Geological Survey collected water-quality samples from 3,199 sites between May 2004 and April 2022 for the California Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program Priority Basin Project (GAMA-PBP). The GAMA-PBP is a cooperative project with the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). The primary objectives of the GAMA-PBP are: (1) to assess the quality of groundwater resources used for public and domestic drinking water supplies, (2) to develop understanding of the natural and anthropogenic processes controlling groundwater quality and changes in groundwater quality, and (3) to improve the availability and usefulness of groundwater quality information to public. This data release publishes site type information and a generalized use category for the sites. The dataset comprises 3,053 wells, 81 springs, and 65 other types of sites. The generalized use category is partially derived from, but is not equivalent to, the use of site and use of water fields from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) data archive. Of the 2,903 wells and springs from which water is withdrawn for use, 1,651 are classified as production (includes sites used for public, commercial, industrial, institutional, and desalination water supplies), 973 as domestic, 264 as irrigation, and 15 as other water supply uses. Of the remaining sites, 225 are classified as observation wells, 6 are wells and springs from which water is withdrawn and not used, 63 are distribution system taps, and 2 are other types of sites. GAMA-PBP data are also served to the public through the SWRCB's GAMA Groundwater Information System (GAMAGIS), along with data from other federal, state, and local agency sources, and the generalized use categories in this data release are compatible with the use categories in SWRCB GAMAGIS. Prior to publication of this data release, SWRCB GAMAGIS classified all GAMA-PBP sites as "municipal", which resulted in erroneous characterization of approximately half of the sites. The generalized classification provided in this data release greatly improves the accuracy of site characterization, while still complying with Federal policies concerning release of location information for some types of sites.
Version 1.0 posted September 29, 2021
Version 2.0 posted August 31, 2022
Version 3.0 posted October 25, 2023
Changes in Version 3.0
1) Eighty-seven (87) sites were added to the Data Release. These sites were sampled for the first time by the GAMA-PBP between May 2022 and August 2023.
2) Corrections were made to 5 sites published in Version 2.0:
ANT-12: use_category changed from irrigation to production
SF-01: use_category changed from irrigation to production
S-NSF-VP15: use_category changed from production to observation
NOCO-IN05: site_number changed from 394117123291001 to 394118123291701 and use_category from production to domestic
COLOR-14: site_number changed from 324452114443101 to 324457114452601
3) The counts of site types in the text of the Abstract and Purpose were updated.
4) The dataset point of contact was changed.
Versions 1.0 and 2.0 can be obtained by request from M.S. Fram (mfram@usgs.gov)
