Carter County, MO Water Table Trend
Carter County's groundwater trend, from USGS's own readings
Carter County's representative monitoring well shows depth to water rising, getting shallower over time, a fitted trend of 1.4 ft per decade over 26 years of readings.
This is one representative well, not a county-wide survey, the same grain limit every page here discloses.
Carter County's source well, in detail
Depth to water at the last reading was 18.6 ft below land surface. Readings span 2000-05-31 to 2026-07-21, 68 measurements from USGS well MO005-365654091001301 (Big Spring Modnr Well), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
How Carter County compares nationally
Carter County sits at rank 185th of 1,449 ranked counties, ordered rising-to-declining, so a low number means a rising water table and a high one means fast decline. Carter County, Missouri is home to about 5,359 people. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Carter County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
Depth and quality are separate questions
This page answers a depth question, not a quality one. A well in Carter County can be stable in depth and still worth testing for quality, or declining and still test clean, the two are measured separately, and only a direct test settles the second one.