Ocean County, NJ Water Table Trend
Is the water table dropping in Ocean County, NJ?
Ocean County's representative monitoring well shows depth to water rising, getting shallower over time, a fitted trend of 2.3 ft per decade over 93 years of readings.
One well stands in for Ocean 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 35.2 ft below land surface. Readings span 1931-04-12 to 2023-10-25, 11 measurements from USGS well USGS-395808074042101 (290454-- Pw 2), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
Where Ocean County ranks
Of the 1,449 US counties with a usable trend, Ocean County ranks 113th from fastest-rising to fastest-declining, 1 is the fastest-rising water table measured, 1449 the fastest-declining. About 666,434 people live in Ocean County, New Jersey. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Ocean County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
A dropping table says nothing about water quality
Whether Ocean 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.