Burke County, NC Water Table Trend
Burke County's groundwater trend, from USGS's own readings
Burke County's representative monitoring well shows depth to water holding roughly steady, a fitted trend of 0.3 ft per decade over 27 years of readings.
One well stands in for Burke 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 8.1 ft below land surface. Readings span 1999-09-15 to 2026-10-19, 163 measurements from USGS well USGS-354302081433201 (Bk-126 Glen Alpine Rs Near Morganton, Nc Bedrock), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
Where Burke County ranks
Of the 1,449 US counties with a usable trend, Burke County ranks 422nd from fastest-rising to fastest-declining, 1 is the fastest-rising water table measured, 1449 the fastest-declining. About 88,545 people live in Burke County, North Carolina. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Burke County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
A dropping table says nothing about water quality
Whether Burke 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.