Newton County, MO Water Table Trend
Newton County's groundwater trend, from USGS's own readings
Newton County's representative monitoring well shows depth to water declining faster than most declining counties, a fitted trend of 18.2 ft per decade over 37 years of readings.
This is one representative well, not a county-wide survey, the same grain limit every page here discloses.
Newton County's source well, in detail
Depth to water at the last reading was 79.9 ft below land surface. Readings span 1989-10-01 to 2026-08-11, 49 measurements from USGS well MO005-370224094320201 (Joplin), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
How Newton County compares nationally
Newton County sits at rank 1428th 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. Newton County, Missouri is home to about 61,519 people. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Newton County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
If you own a well in Newton County
A dropping water table means a residential pump has to reach deeper and work harder, which shortens its life. In Newton County, that trend is real, not assumed: 18.2 ft per decade over 37 years.
Depth and quality are separate questions
This page answers a depth question, not a quality one. A well in Newton 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.