Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Tennessee Karst Groundwater Dye Tracing Water Year 2023

Metadata Updated: November 26, 2025

Karst hydrologic systems are important resources in the state of Tennessee both as drinking water resources and as centers for possible biological diversity. These systems are susceptible to contamination due to the inherent connectivity between surface water and groundwater systems in karst systems. A partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Tennessee Department of Conservation (TDEC) was formed to investigate karst spring systems across the state utilizing fluorescent groundwater tracing, particularly in areas where these resources may be used as drinking water sources. In fall 2021, USGS and TDEC staff identified possible vulnerabilities or complexities that may exist within karst spring systems based upon maturity of karst development, underlying geology, and uncertainties related to estimated recharge areas. Based upon initial research, several study areas were selected. Dye tracing efforts began in March 2022 in the communities of Woodbury, Cowan, Jasper, and Vanleer. In Water Year 2023 (10/1/2022-9/30/2023), fieldwork concluded on these initial communities and new dye tracing efforts were started in Caryville, Morristown, and Lafayette. Collectively these communities span multiple physiographic regions including the western and eastern Cumberland Plateau escarpments, the Western and Eastern Highland Rim, and the Valley and Ridge Province. All these communities rely on karst groundwater as a drinking water source and in areas where the hydrology has been significantly altered by karst processes and thus the groundwater pathways are complex and unpredictable. This data release contains shapefiles that relate to dye injection locations, monitoring sites, and dye traces conducted throughout Tennessee, in communities that utilize karst groundwater as a drinking water source, during the 2023 Water Year (10/1/2022-9/30/2023). All files were created in ArcGIS Pro and each shapefile contains associated attributes for the features contained within. Layer files are included with the datasets to match symbology found in figures in the accompanying report. All shapefiles and layers were created and modified in ArcGIS software. For a full description of the methods to create these files, see Process Steps in "TN_WY23_Metadata.xml" metadata file. Data within each child item of this data release are named with a two-letter abbreviation unique for the community where the tracing occurred and the water year the work was conducted (e.g. WD23). Abbreviations for the communities are as followed: CR = Caryville, CW = Cowan, JS = Jasper, LF = Lafayette, MR = Morristown, VN = Vanleer, WD = Woodbury.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 26, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 26, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-6536c5ebd34ee4b6e05bb7c0
Data Last Modified 2024-09-30T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id ef6e249f-b4d7-4420-93cc-e4f988e7c7d4
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 53e33259cf51650c13b3531b659b04258470205e8ff94b64253b94aa936d4005
Source Schema Version 1.1

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.