Frederick County, MD Water Table Trend
Is the water table dropping in Frederick County, MD?
Frederick County's representative monitoring well shows depth to water rising, getting shallower over time, a fitted trend of 0.9 ft per decade over 45 years of readings.
One well stands in for Frederick 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 32.9 ft below land surface. Readings span 1982-04-05 to 2026-10-23, 1153 measurements from USGS well USGS-393733077274801 (Fr Bd 96), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
Where Frederick County ranks
Of the 1,449 US counties with a usable trend, Frederick County ranks 256th from fastest-rising to fastest-declining, 1 is the fastest-rising water table measured, 1449 the fastest-declining. About 299,317 people live in Frederick County, Maryland. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Frederick County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
A dropping table says nothing about water quality
Whether Frederick 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.