Cooperator Access	Ground Water Data and Maps for Mississippi

Integrated GroundWater Database Help System

Search Criteria Terms

Agency Code

The agency that is reporting the data. Agency codes are fixed values assigned by the National Water Information System (NWIS). A list of agency codes is available, and is also available in text format .

Site Name/Local Number

The official name of the site in our database. For well information this can be a district-assigned local number. Do NOT include "river", "lake", "creek" or other hydrologic term. Search for "trinity" not "trinity river", or a complete or partial local number. All name searches are NOT case sensitive.

Note: Site name searches are the slowest way to find sites, and take 5 to 10 times longer than searches using the site number. The fastest site name search is matching from the beginning. Searches that match any part of the name are much slower.

Site number

Each site in the USGS data base has a unique 2- to 15-digit identification number. You can search using an exact match or match using a partial number. To use an exact match you must include all of the digits including any leading zeros (0) that make up the complete site number. A site will not be found if the site number has a leading zero and it is not included in the string tested using an exact match.

Note: The speed of the search using site numbers (and site names) is very fast using exact matches. The next fastest is matching from the beginning. Searches that match any part of the number (or name) are much slower.

Multiple Site IDs

A list of multiple Sites

URL to Site ID list

the URL location of a file that contains a list of Site IDs. This file must be in this specific format:

USGS 12345678
USGS 12345679
	

File of Site numbers

A previously saved file of USGS site identification numbers, in the format:

USGS 11447650
USGS 394523084582301

The file may contain the agency code.

NESS ID

The NESS Identification number associated with a Site ID

USGS Office

The USGS office that controls the day to day operations of a site.

Public Water Supply wells

Selects data for public water supply wells, only. No data for privately owned wells are retrieved

User profile

A stored profile name that contains a list of stations to view

County

The name of the county or county equivalent (parish, borough, etc.) in which the site is located. A list of codes codes is available [Tab-separated file || [Tab-separated --saved to compressed file || [Tab-separated --saved to file || Pre || Table].

Hydrologic Region

The contiguous United States is broken into 18 different major watersheds. Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico each have a separate watershed. Additional information is available.

Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)

Hydrologic units are geographic areas representing part or all of a surface drainage basin or distinct hydrologic feature and are delineated on the State Hydrologic Unit Maps. Each hydrologic unit is identified by a unique number (HUC), and a name. Additional information is available.

Latitude-Longitude (Lat-Long) box

When looking at a map, consider a rectangle that encloses the area of interest to you. The maximum latitude and longitude define the upper-left corner, and the minimum latitude and longitude define the lower-right corner of that box. To find the approximate latitude and longitude try the USGS MapFinder. For the best results define the smallest practical latitude-longitude box that includes the area of interest; retrievals from unnecessarily large latitude-longitude boxes (1x1 degree, for example) may yield many undesired sites.

Examples

Degrees- Minutes- Seconds	Decimal Degrees
1005901	100.91
450934	45.11

Radial Search

A search method which allows the user to enter in a latitude-longitude point of origin and retrieve all sites within a certain radius of the point. When looking at a map, consider a circle that encloses the area of interest to you. The latitude and longitude of the center of the circle (point of origin) and the radius defines the area of the circle. For the best results use the smallest practical radius that includes the area of interest; retrievals from unnecessarily large circles (100 miles, for example) may yield many undesired sites.

Examples

Degrees- Minutes- Seconds	Decimal Degrees	Radius
1005901	100.91	10
450934	45.11	10.95

Site type

The hydrologic setting of the site. This is not equivalent to the type of data collected at the site.

Surface Water	Streams
Lake Station	Lake or reservoir site
Estuary	An arm or inlet of the sea at the lower end of a river.
Spring	Cross between surface water and a ground water site.
Ground Water	Water levels in wells.
Meteorological	Weather information such as precipitation amount, air temperature, etc.

Ground-water site type

The code indicating the type of site to which these data apply. The codes and their meanings are:

• C - Collector or Ranney type well.
• D - Drain dug to intercept the water table or potentiometric surface to either lower the ground-water level or serve as a water supply.
• E - Excavation.
• H - Sinkhole.
• I - Interconnected wells, also called connector or drainage wells; that is, a well interconnected via an underground lateral.
• M - Multiple wells. Use only for well field consisting of a group of wells that are pumped through a single header and for which little or no data about the individual wells are available.
• O - Outcrop.
• P - Pond dug to intercept the water table or potentiometric surface.
• S - Spring (used only on spring schedule).
• T - Tunnel, shaft, or mine from which ground water is obtained.
• W - Well, for single wells other than wells of the collector or Ranney type.
• X - Test hole, not completed as a well.

Use of site

For ground water sites, the principal use of the site or the purpose for which the site was constructed. Uses and their definitions are available.

Use of water

Enter the code indicating the principal use of water from the site. The codes and their meanings are available.

Altitude

Height of the site referenced to sea level.

Casing diameter/Well diameter

Diameter of the well casing in inches.

Drainage area

The area enclosed by a topographic divide from which direct surface runoff from precipitation normally drains by gravity into the stream above that point.

Data type

All USGS data falls into one or more of these categories

Any Data Type	Matches data for any available options
Real-time and Recent Daily-Value Data	Real-time Data is any data down to the 15 minute interval that has been transmitted in the last 31 days. Recent Daily-Value Data is the average daily value for a site and it is usually for the past year and a half of recorded values.
Surface Water	Water flow and levels in streams, lakes and springs.
Water Quality	Chemical and physical data for streams, lakes, springs, and wells.
Ground Water	Water levels in wells.

Well depth

The depth of the finished well, in feet below land surface datum.

Hole Depth

The total depth to which the hole was initially drilled, in feet below land surface datum.

Construction date

Date the well was completed

Aquifer (by code)

Aquifers in the USGS water resources data base are identified by a geohydrologic unit code (a three-digit number related to the age of the formation), followed by a 4 or 5 character abbreviation for the geologic unit or aquifer name. Additional information is available

Aquifer (by name)

Name of the aquifer. Also known as the geohydrologic unit. Additional information is available.

Aquifer type

Ground water occurs in aquifers under two different conditions. Where water only partly fills an aquifer, the upper surface is free to rise and decline. These aquifers are referred to as unconfined (or water-table) aquifers. Where water completely fills an aquifer that is overlain by a confining bed, the aquifer is referred to as a confined (or artesian) aquifer. When a confined aquifer is penetrated by a well, the water level in the well will rise above the top of the aquifer (but not necessarily above land surface). Additional information is available.

Number of observations

Number of records found meeting a given criteria

Period of record

Period of record for the data selected. You can enter either or both of the first date or end date to restrict search. The search is done against the first and last date of record for the given type of data, not against the actual data values. Thus, if a site has one sample on 1910-01-01 and the next sample and all other samples collected between 1980-01-01 and 1990-01-01, and the search first date is 1950-01-01 this site will past the test since it the period of record for the site would be from 1910-01-01 to 1990-01-01. (NOTE: checking data values explicitly, and not using a summary of the data is time consuming and is not supported in NwisWeb currently. )

Dates can be entered in any of the following formats:

FORMAT	EXAMPLE
YYYY-MM-DD	2000-05-12
YYYY-M-D	2000-5-12
M/D/YYYY	5/12/2000
M D YYYY	5 12 2000
YYYYMMDD	20000512
YYYY.M.D	2000.5.12

Sample medium type

Medium type refers to the specific environmental medium that was sampled and analyzed. Medium type differs from site type because one site type, such as surface water, could have data for several media, such as water, bottom sediment, fish tissue, and others.

Parameter groupings

Parameter groupings are major categories of water quality data types that a set of parameter codes are associated with. Parameter codes associated with each group.

Parameter code/name

5-digit number used in the US Geological Survey computerized data system, National Water Information System (NWIS), to uniquely identify a specific constituent. The codes used in NWIS are the same as those used in the US Environmental Protection Agency data system, STORET. The Environemnetal Protection Agency assigns and approves all requests for new codes List of parameter code names