USGS Water Data Centers May Soon Close, Threatening States’ Water Management

Across the country, the data collected at stream gauges managed by the U.S. Geological Survey are used to implement drought measures when streamflows are low, alert local authorities of floods, help administer water to users on rivers and issue pollution discharge permits required by the Clean Water Act for communities across the country.

But more than two dozen USGS Water Science Centers that house the employees and equipment to manage those gauges and equipment will soon have their leases terminated after being targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire Elon Musk. Data collected by the centers inform studies of the condition of the country’s water resources and shape local and state water management plans.

It’s the latest in the Trump administration’s assault on science and federal agencies, and means that centers from Alaska to Massachusetts will close once their leases are up, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit that supports government employees. The leases of 16 out of the 25 centers end Aug. 31, 2025. Staffers at targeted centers, speaking anonymously because they are not authorized to speak to the media, said they are in the dark as to what happens when the leases end and how their operations, vital to water management across the country, will be able to continue, though talks continue about renewing some of the affected leases.

“These [centers] are just super, super important, and there’s no rhyme or reason, no thought at all given to canceling these leases,” said Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney formerly with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, now working as PEER’s science policy director. “They’re doing it because it’s convenient, because these particular centers happen to be up for renewal.”

Most centers have no plans to vacate facilities, which would require relocating employees, vehicle fleets and equipment. A staffer, whose identity is being withheld because they are not authorized to speak to the press, said they only learned of the termination of the lease for the center where they work when the landlord asked them where they were going after the General Services Administration canceled it at the direction of DOGE. 

The equipment requires regular monitoring to maintain the quality of the data and provide repairs as needed. In a worst case scenario, workers said, the termination of the leases would result in employees being unable to get out in the field to make the necessary checkups and repairs, making the agency unable to produce the data. In the best case, maintenance will take longer, and data quality will decrease, potentially affecting some operations. 

“We are actively working with GSA to ensure that every facility and asset is utilized effectively, and where necessary, identifying alternative solutions that strengthen our mission,” a USGS spokesperson said in a statement. “These efforts reflect our broader commitment to streamlining government operations while ensuring that scientific endeavors remain strong, effective, and impactful. This process is ongoing, and we will provide updates as more information becomes available.”

One of the Water Science Centers whose lease will expire this year is the USGS field office in Moab, Utah, the town famed for its proximity to Arches and four other national parks in the region. 

David O’Leary, the center director at the USGS’ Utah Water Science Center, couldn’t comment on the termination of the site’s lease or its future, but said the Moab field office services sites across 24,000 square miles in southern Utah—a landscape bigger than many states. 

The Moab office operates and monitors more than 30 stream gauges, eight water quality sites, five meteorological sites, two groundwater monitoring sites and one sediment monitoring site. Many of those, he said, send information in real time to federal, tribal, state and local partners about floods and the flows of streams and rivers in the Colorado River Basin and even provide data for the administering of state water rights during drought conditions.

“They cover a lot of territory, and I think they provide a lot of value to Utah and water users in the Upper Colorado River Basin, and we’re really proud of what they can accomplish out of that office,” O’Leary said, adding he’s hopeful operations will continue for the field office.

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”

— Blake Bingham, Utah Division of Water Rights

The USGS is vital to how Utah manages the “precious and limited resource” that is water across the state, said Blake Bingham, the deputy state engineer at the Utah Division of Water Rights, which administers water to users across the state. 

Utah, like much of the West, uses the prior appropriation system in which users who are first in time to use water have their rights to it prioritized. The stream gauges managed by the USGS inform those decisions, he said. When they measure drought conditions, the state can then cut water deliveries to junior users to protect those with earlier, prioritized rights. It’s something they do every day, and it is not possible without the help of USGS, he said. The big concern for the Division of Water Rights is that without a field office, USGS staff would not be able to monitor and fix the gauges.

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” Bingham said. “So it’s just a fundamental part of what we do.”

The state of Utah also funds roughly two-thirds of the stream gauges operated by the USGS, said Candice Hasenyager, the director of the Utah Division of Water Resources, and has contracts with the agency for those services. The work the USGS Water Science Centers do across the country is largely funded by states, not the federal government.

The data is “absolutely foundational to our understanding of the current and past hydrology,” of the state, Hasenyager said, and shapes Utah’s long-term water planning, noting that 95 percent of its water supply starts as snowpack that then melts into runoff found in streams and rivers that are tracked by the USGS.

“We don’t really know how they would manage it if that office was closed,” she said, and the potential loss of its lease has put the state’s planning in an uncertain place.

Some leases may be restored, staffers told Inside Climate News, at the urging of the USGS, though it is uncertain how many may stay open.

“We’re very concerned about being able to manage our water resources within the state of Utah” without the assistance of USGS and other targeted federal programs, said Hasenyager, and the state will continue to communicate the importance those programs to the federal government.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the amount of Utah’s water supply that starts in the snowpack. The state gets 95 percent of its water from snowpack, not 99 percent.