Groundwater in Pennsylvanian- and Mississippian-age Aquifers is essential for domestic supplies, development of energy resources, and sustaining aquatic ecosystems of the Appalachian Plateaus Region of the eastern United States. The regional groundwater availability study of the Appalachian Plateaus will combine: (1) development of a basin-wide hydrogeologic framework, (2) computation of a regional hydrologic budget, (3) assessment of conceptual flow models at multiple scales, and (4) an evaluation of aquifer responses to human and natural stresses.

Assimilation of these tasks will provide the unique opportunity to quantify groundwater availability in Appalachian Plateaus aquifers and the influence of regional geology on the occurrence of fresh groundwater and depth of active flow. This study is intended to provide the foundational datasets for other Federal and State water resource investigations to assess drinking-water resources, aquatic ecosystems, and continued energy resource development in the region. A better understanding of groundwater availability in the Plateaus thus plays a central role in sustained economic development of the region.