Bedford County consists of 764 square miles in the west-central portion of Virginia's central plateau. Its boundaries include the Blue Ridge Mountains on the west, the James River on the northeast and Smith Mountain Lake on the south, and Campbell County on the east. The area has a rolling to hilly terrain with elevations from 800 feet to 4,200 feet above sea level. The County contains the headwaters of Goose Creek and Big Otter River, which are major tributaries to the Roanoke River. The County is underlain by fractured-rock aquifers that are increasingly being relied upon to supply water to local communities, industry, and individual residences. This is an area with an expanding economy and a growing population, and, to meet future water needs, these aquifers are likely to be developed to supplement current withdrawals. As urban and rural growth continues, competition for clean water may increase in areas previously capable of meeting local water-use demands.

The USGS Virginia Water Science Center is beginning to characterize streamflow statistics in the region and the fractured-rock aquifer systems in the County by initiating relevant, long-term, hydrogeologic data collection, which will provide information that can be used to guide the development and management of the water resources within the County.

In 2006, there were two, real-time, continuous-record, surface-water gaging stations that monitored basins within the County:

Information on the availability of groundwater in an area can be derived from estimates of recharge to the groundwater system and estimates of water entering and leaving a basin. Rates of effective groundwater recharge can be estimated using streamflow data from continuous-record, surface-water gaging stations and hydrograph-separation techniques that separate streamflow into groundwater (base flow) and surface-runoff components. With a knowledge of precipitation in a region, water budgets (estimates of water entering and leaving a basin), can also be derived. As of December 2006, the USGS had installed two additional, real-time, continuous-record, surface-water gaging stations:

Additionally, partial-record surface-water gaging (stations where discrete discharge measurements are obtained over a period of time) can often be correlated to concurrent daily mean discharge at nearby continuous-record gaging stations by graphical regression methods. Streamflow statistics and mean base-flow discharge can be estimated for the partial-record surface-water gaging stations from this correlation. Rates of effective groundwater recharge can then be estimated. Therefore, beginning in December 2006, the USGS established 12 partial-record surface-water gaging stations in the Big Otter and Goose Creek Basins to monitor these streams:

Station 02059420—North Fork Goose Creek at Rt 460 near Montvale, Va. Drainage area of 31.5 mi².

Station 02059450—South Fork Goose Creek at Rt 607 at Montvale, Va. Drainage area of 11.0 mi².

Station 02059452—Goose Creek at Rt 726 near Irving, Va. Drainage area of 46.8 mi².

Station 02059459—Bore Auger Creek at Rt 754 near Irving, Va. Drainage area of 17.6 mi².

Station 02059490—Stony Fork at Rt 608 near Moneta, Va. Drainage area of 7.01 mi².

Station 02060592—Sheep Creek at Rt 688 near Thaxton, Va. Drainage area of 10.3 mi².

Station 02060692—Stony Creek at Rt 43 near Peaks of Otter, Va. Drainage area of 14.0 mi².

Station 02060695—Big Otter River at Rt 43 near Peaks of Otter, Va. Drainage area of 37.0 mi².

Station 02060800—North Otter Creek at Rt 643 near Cifax, Va. Drainage area of 25.8 mi².

Station 02060860—Oslin Creek at Rt 644 near Cifax, Va. Drainage area of 12.0 mi².

Station 02061160—Elk Creek at Rt 688 near Goode, Va. Drainage area of 41.0 mi².

Station 02061320—Little Otter River at Rt 715 near Otter Hill, Va. Drainage area of 66.4 mi².

This combination of continuous-record and partial-record surface-water gaging stations provides areal coverage of the Big Otter and Goose Creek Basins, and also provides base-flow information on the underlying types of bedrock in these basins. This data-collection approach covers the majority of the County and will serve as a strong foundation for future water-resources investigative efforts.

Finally, in May 2008 the USGS in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, sited, drilled, and instrumented three real-time observation wells in the County to monitor water levels:

Station number—372224079423601, station name: 33G 1 SOW 224 at Montvale Elementary School.

Station number—372150079422301, station name: 33G 2 SOW 225 at Montavale Park.

Station number—372543079295401, station name: 35H 1 SOW 226 at the Otterville Solid Waste Collection Facility.