Catawba County, NC Water Table Trend
Catawba County's groundwater trend, from USGS's own readings
Catawba County's representative monitoring well shows depth to water rising, getting shallower over time, a fitted trend of 1.6 ft per decade over 17 years of readings.
One well stands in for Catawba 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 41.5 ft below land surface. Readings span 2009-07-31 to 2026-08-28, 105 measurements from USGS well USGS-354616081085102 (Cw-351 Oxford Rs Nr Claremont, 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 Catawba County ranks
Of the 1,449 US counties with a usable trend, Catawba County ranks 164th from fastest-rising to fastest-declining, 1 is the fastest-rising water table measured, 1449 the fastest-declining. About 167,054 people live in Catawba County, North Carolina. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Catawba County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
A dropping table says nothing about water quality
Whether Catawba 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.