Salem County, NJ Water Table Trend
Salem County, NJ: what the water table is actually doing
Salem County's representative monitoring well shows depth to water rising, getting shallower over time, a fitted trend of 1.4 ft per decade over 84 years of readings.
One well stands in for Salem 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 11.8 ft below land surface. Readings span 1942-01-31 to 2026-05-26, 550 measurements from USGS well USGS-394236075272101 (330342-- Penns Grove 24), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
Where Salem County ranks
Of the 1,449 US counties with a usable trend, Salem County ranks 177th from fastest-rising to fastest-declining, 1 is the fastest-rising water table measured, 1449 the fastest-declining. About 65,874 people live in Salem County, New Jersey. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Salem County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
A dropping table says nothing about water quality
Whether Salem 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.