Tama County, IA Water Table Trend
Is the water table dropping in Tama County, IA?
Tama County's representative monitoring well shows depth to water declining, slower than most declining counties, a fitted trend of 0.6 ft per decade over 28 years of readings.
This is one representative well, not a county-wide survey, the same grain limit every page here discloses.
Tama County's source well, in detail
Depth to water at the last reading was 6.8 ft below land surface. Readings span 1997-07-17 to 2025-06-10, 14 measurements from USGS well USGS-415527092190301 (082n13w12cbc 1997nawqa Tama County), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
How Tama County compares nationally
Tama County sits at rank 979th 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. Tama County, Iowa is home to about 16,738 people. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Tama County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
If you own a well in Tama County
A dropping water table means a residential pump has to reach deeper and work harder, which shortens its life. In Tama County, that trend is real, not assumed: 0.6 ft per decade over 28 years.
Depth and quality are separate questions
This page answers a depth question, not a quality one. A well in Tama 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.