Maryland Permitted Groundwater Withdrawal Sites from 1998

Point locations represent wells in Maryland permitted to withdraw 10,000 gallons or more of groundwater per day. The dataset includes permit details, withdrawal amounts, aquifer codes, and use types. Data was compiled by the Maryland Department of the Environment from the USGS SWUDS database for the year 1998.

Use Cases

• Map well locations by permit number and aquifer code to visualize groundwater extraction density.
• Analyze reported withdrawal amounts against permitted amounts to identify potential overuse.
• Classify sites by type of use (e.g., industrial, agricultural) for sector-specific water resource planning.
• Join spatial points with other geospatial layers using location data for environmental impact studies.

Strengths

• Includes specific attributes per site: permit number, permit amount, reported withdrawal, aquifer code, and type of use.
• Data is compliant with Federal Geographic Data Committee metadata standards.

Limitations

• Dataset is from a single year (1998) and lacks temporal continuity for trend analysis.
• Limited to high-volume withdrawal sites (10,000+ gallons/day), excluding smaller users.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Geological Survey site-specific water-use database (SWUDS), via the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Collection Method

Locations of MDE-permitted ground-water withdrawal sites compiled for GIS use.

Time Range

1998

Freshness

null

Geography

State of Maryland, USA.