Groundwater-Quality Data in the Tule-Tulare-Highlands-Kaweah Shallow Aquifer Study Unit, 2014-2015

The U.S. Geological Survey collected groundwater samples from 95 domestic wells in Tulare and Kings Counties, California in 2014-2015. The wells were sampled for the Tulare Shallow Aquifer Study Unit of the California State Water Resources Control Board Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program Priority Basin Projects assessment of the quality of groundwater resources used for domestic drinking water supply. Domestic wells commonly are screened at shallower depths than are public-supply wells. The Tulare Shallow Aquifer Study Unit includes the Kaweah, Tule, and Tulare Lake subbasins of the San Joaquin Valley groundwater basin and adjacent areas of the Sierra Nevada. The study unit was divided into equal area grid cells and one domestic well was sampled in each cell. Groundwater samples were analyzed for field water-quality parameters, volatile organic compounds, pesticides and pesticide degradates, nutrients, major ions and trace elements, gross alpha and gross beta particle activities, noble gases, tritium, carbon-14 in dissolved inorganic carbon, stable isotopic ratios of water and dissolved nitrate, and microbial indicators. These data support the following publication: Fram, M.S., 2017, Groundwater Quality in the Shallow Aquifers of the Tulare, Kaweah, and Tule Groundwater Basins and Adjacent Highlands areas, Southern San Joaquin Valley, California: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 20173001, 4 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/fs20173001.