Percentage of Surface Drinking Water from Intermittent,
Ephemeral, and Headwater Streams in West Virginia
Legend: This map highlights
regional patterns of dependence
on intermittent, ephemeral, and
headwater streams for surface
drinking water in West Virginia.
In West Virginia, 14,825 total
miles of streams provide water for
surface water intakes supplying
public drinking water systems; of
this, 8,387 miles, or 57%, are
intermittent, ephemeral, or
headwater streams. Over 1 million
people in West Virginia receive
drinking water from public
drinking water systems that rely at
least in part on intermittent,
ephemeral, or headwater streams.
This analysis compared the stream
length of intermittent, ephemeral,
and headwater streams to total
stream length within all mapped
Source Protection Areas (SPAs)
for each county. A SPA is an area
upstream from a drinking water
source or intake that contributes
surface water flow to the drinking
water intake during a 24-hour
period. This is based on data that
generally do not include streams
less than one mile in length.
Intermittent streams are streams
containing water for only part of
the year. Ephemeral streams flow
in response to precipitation
events. First-order streams have
been used to represent headwater
streams.
Data Sources: National
Hydrography Dataset Plus at
medium resolution; Federal Safe
Drinking Water Information
System 4th Quarter 2006 Data.
Wheeling
Morgantown
Martinsburg
Parkersburg
Elkins
Huntington
Charleston
Beckley
Key:
Intermittent, ephemeral, and
headwater stream miles as
percentage of total stream
miles contained in all SPAs
for a given county
33.51% - 44%
45% - 56%
57% - 69%
70% - 86%
87% -100%
No Data
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