Beadle County, SD Water Table Trend
Beadle County's groundwater trend, from USGS's own readings
Beadle County's representative monitoring well shows depth to water rising, getting shallower over time, a fitted trend of 6.2 ft per decade over 45 years of readings.
One well stands in for Beadle County's whole aquifer here, the honest simplification every page on this site carries.
What the well actually measured
The most recent reading put water 13 ft below land surface. Readings span 1979-06-26 to 2024-10-03, 422 measurements from USGS well USGS-442254098174501 (111n62w32aadd (James Junction Well)), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
Where Beadle County ranks
Of the 1,449 US counties with a usable trend, Beadle County ranks 44th from fastest-rising to fastest-declining, 1 is the fastest-rising water table measured, 1449 the fastest-declining. About 19,459 people live in Beadle County, South Dakota. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Beadle County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
A dropping table says nothing about water quality
Whether Beadle County's water table is rising or falling is independent of what's actually in the water. Depletion can concentrate naturally-occurring minerals, so it's worth checking directly with a water test rather than assuming a depth trend says anything about quality.