St. Louis County, MO Water Table Trend
St. Louis County, MO: what the water table is actually doing
Over 69 years of USGS readings, the well tracking St. Louis County's aquifer is holding roughly steady: 0.1 ft per decade.
One well stands in for St. Louis 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 15.9 ft below land surface. Readings span 1957-06-24 to 2026-05-14, 55 measurements from USGS well MO005-384849090092001 (Columbia Bottoms), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
Where St. Louis County ranks
Of the 1,449 US counties with a usable trend, St. Louis County ranks 709th from fastest-rising to fastest-declining, 1 is the fastest-rising water table measured, 1449 the fastest-declining. About 992,929 people live in St. Louis County, Missouri. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how St. Louis County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
A dropping table says nothing about water quality
Whether St. Louis 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.