Here is introductory text about what a scenario is, how we build them, and what goals a user could hope to achieve by exploring this pre-defined collection of water data and insights.
A working example, not real content — use it as a starting point for a new deck. Its chapters[].body fields demonstrate the Markdown formatting available in description and body text: italics, inline code, and links.
Groundwater maps only show where sampling has occurred. This scenario explains how to distinguish tested water that is clean from water that simply has not been measured.
Arsenic and fluoride in New Mexico groundwater are overwhelmingly geogenic — dissolved from volcanic and intrusive rock, not released by people. This scenario walks through how to tell a rock-caused exceedance from a human-caused one, and why the distinction changes what can actually be done about it.
A high TDS reading says water is salty but not why. Comparing chloride and sulfate alongside it turns "salty" into a diagnosis — gypsum or halite dissolving from Permian evaporites, deep brine drawn up near production wells, or irrigation water concentrating salts at the surface all leave different ratios behind.
Nitrate has no natural source in New Mexico groundwater, so its presence indicates contamination from septic systems, livestock waste, or fertilizer reaching the water table.
A Superfund or leaking-tank listing near a well is an obvious worry, but the listing itself only records what was released — not how fast it can move or who stands in its path. This scenario walks through the three things that actually determine risk: how close the water table sits to the surface, how easily the ground above it lets water through, and whether a flow path actually connects the site to a well downgradient of it.
A well can pull perfectly clean water and still fail if the water table drops below its pump. Domestic wells are usually the shallowest, least expensive completions in an area, which puts them first in line when a regional decline sets in — especially next to high-volume neighbors drawing from the same aquifer.
Uranium in New Mexico groundwater has two well-documented causes: sandstone that is naturally uranium-rich, and a century of mining that targeted that same rock. Unlike arsenic or nitrate, where one explanation usually wins outright, uranium often leaves both standing at once — and this scenario is about learning to recognize that state instead of forcing a verdict the data can't support.
Groundwater pumped in a basin often started as snow and rain much higher up, on land managed by an agency with no connection to the water system below it. This scenario traces that connection from upland recharge to downstream wells, then closes with a case where ownership is the only available signal: Department of Defense land and PFAS, a contamination pathway this map has no layer to show directly.
A dropping water level is usually read as a supply question: how much is left, and how fast it's disappearing. Where a large decline lines up with elevated TDS, chloride, arsenic, or fluoride, it becomes a quality question too — whether the water moving in to replace what's pumped out is worse than what it replaced. This scenario works through that overlap, and why the map can show where it happens without being able to say which of several causes is responsible.
Critical Management Areas and Closure Areas mark where New Mexico has restricted new groundwater pumping. This scenario compares that regulatory boundary against actual water-level decline and monitoring coverage — three lines, drawn by three different processes, that do not always agree.
Comparing two time periods on this map can reveal a real trend, or nothing more than a change in which wells got sampled. This scenario walks through telling them apart — checking the sampling network first, watching a footprint's edges rather than its average, and picking analytes whose behavior is predictable enough to trend in the first place.
Well construction depth — how deep a well was drilled, and which part of the aquifer it is screened into — is missing from this map entirely. Well use category is the closest available stand-in, because domestic, community, and oil production wells are conventionally drilled to different depths. A water quality reading that shifts systematically across those categories within one small area is a depth signal this map never states directly.
Any single layer on this map answers a narrow question. Predicting where a place is actually headed — not just what it looks like today — means reading eight of them in sequence: geology, physical stress, pumping, potential sources, current water quality, monitoring confidence, and regulatory authority. This scenario walks through that sequence as one capstone method, then closes with what even all eight together still can't show.
Here is introductory text about what a scenario is, how we build them, and what goals a user could hope to achieve by exploring this pre-defined collection of water data and insights.
A working example, not real content — use it as a starting point for a new deck. Its chapters[].body fields demonstrate the Markdown formatting available in description and body text: italics, inline code, and links.
Groundwater maps only show where sampling has occurred. This scenario explains how to distinguish tested water that is clean from water that simply has not been measured.
Arsenic and fluoride in New Mexico groundwater are overwhelmingly geogenic — dissolved from volcanic and intrusive rock, not released by people. This scenario walks through how to tell a rock-caused exceedance from a human-caused one, and why the distinction changes what can actually be done about it.
A high TDS reading says water is salty but not why. Comparing chloride and sulfate alongside it turns "salty" into a diagnosis — gypsum or halite dissolving from Permian evaporites, deep brine drawn up near production wells, or irrigation water concentrating salts at the surface all leave different ratios behind.
Nitrate has no natural source in New Mexico groundwater, so its presence indicates contamination from septic systems, livestock waste, or fertilizer reaching the water table.
A Superfund or leaking-tank listing near a well is an obvious worry, but the listing itself only records what was released — not how fast it can move or who stands in its path. This scenario walks through the three things that actually determine risk: how close the water table sits to the surface, how easily the ground above it lets water through, and whether a flow path actually connects the site to a well downgradient of it.
A well can pull perfectly clean water and still fail if the water table drops below its pump. Domestic wells are usually the shallowest, least expensive completions in an area, which puts them first in line when a regional decline sets in — especially next to high-volume neighbors drawing from the same aquifer.
Uranium in New Mexico groundwater has two well-documented causes: sandstone that is naturally uranium-rich, and a century of mining that targeted that same rock. Unlike arsenic or nitrate, where one explanation usually wins outright, uranium often leaves both standing at once — and this scenario is about learning to recognize that state instead of forcing a verdict the data can't support.
Groundwater pumped in a basin often started as snow and rain much higher up, on land managed by an agency with no connection to the water system below it. This scenario traces that connection from upland recharge to downstream wells, then closes with a case where ownership is the only available signal: Department of Defense land and PFAS, a contamination pathway this map has no layer to show directly.
A dropping water level is usually read as a supply question: how much is left, and how fast it's disappearing. Where a large decline lines up with elevated TDS, chloride, arsenic, or fluoride, it becomes a quality question too — whether the water moving in to replace what's pumped out is worse than what it replaced. This scenario works through that overlap, and why the map can show where it happens without being able to say which of several causes is responsible.
Critical Management Areas and Closure Areas mark where New Mexico has restricted new groundwater pumping. This scenario compares that regulatory boundary against actual water-level decline and monitoring coverage — three lines, drawn by three different processes, that do not always agree.
Comparing two time periods on this map can reveal a real trend, or nothing more than a change in which wells got sampled. This scenario walks through telling them apart — checking the sampling network first, watching a footprint's edges rather than its average, and picking analytes whose behavior is predictable enough to trend in the first place.
Well construction depth — how deep a well was drilled, and which part of the aquifer it is screened into — is missing from this map entirely. Well use category is the closest available stand-in, because domestic, community, and oil production wells are conventionally drilled to different depths. A water quality reading that shifts systematically across those categories within one small area is a depth signal this map never states directly.
Any single layer on this map answers a narrow question. Predicting where a place is actually headed — not just what it looks like today — means reading eight of them in sequence: geology, physical stress, pumping, potential sources, current water quality, monitoring confidence, and regulatory authority. This scenario walks through that sequence as one capstone method, then closes with what even all eight together still can't show.