Buchanan County, IA Water Table Trend
Is the water table dropping in Buchanan County, IA?
Buchanan County's representative monitoring well shows depth to water holding roughly steady, a fitted trend of 0.2 ft per decade over 28 years of readings.
One well stands in for Buchanan 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 2.4 ft below land surface. Readings span 1997-08-27 to 2025-06-09, 14 measurements from USGS well USGS-423557091560501 (090n09w20baa 1996nawqa Buchanan County), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
Where Buchanan County ranks
Of the 1,449 US counties with a usable trend, Buchanan County ranks 487th from fastest-rising to fastest-declining, 1 is the fastest-rising water table measured, 1449 the fastest-declining. About 20,733 people live in Buchanan County, Iowa. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Buchanan County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
A dropping table says nothing about water quality
Whether Buchanan 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.