Osage County, MO Water Table Trend
Osage County, MO: what the water table is actually doing
Osage County's long-term well puts the trend at 1.4 ft per decade, declining at a typical pace for a declining county, based on 59 measurements since 1937.
This is one representative well, not a county-wide survey, the same grain limit every page here discloses.
Osage County's source well, in detail
Depth to water at the last reading was 310.4 ft below land surface. Readings span 1937-09-01 to 2026-05-13, 59 measurements from USGS well MO005-382836091502301 (Linn), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
How Osage County compares nationally
Osage County sits at rank 1125th 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. Osage County, Missouri is home to about 13,478 people. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Osage County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
If you own a well in Osage County
A dropping water table means a residential pump has to reach deeper and work harder, which shortens its life. In Osage County, that trend is real, not assumed: 1.4 ft per decade over 89 years.
Depth and quality are separate questions
This page answers a depth question, not a quality one. A well in Osage 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.