Query real-time and historical USGS water data from ~8,000 stream gages and groundwater wells.
Most file and storage access work still happens through a UI a human drives. Usgs MCP server moves it into the conversation instead. Query real-time and historical USGS water data from ~8,000 stream gages and groundwater wells.
The server publishes 9 tools. What each one is for:
water_list_parameters — Static lookup of well-known USGS parameter codes with names, units, and domain. No network callwater_find_sites — Find USGS monitoring sites by bounding box, state, county, or HUC watershed. Filter by site type and parameter availability. Large match sets spillwater_get_readings — Get the latest instantaneous values (~15 min real-time) for up to 100 USGS siteswater_get_series — Get a time series of daily or instantaneous values for a site over a date range. Large ranges spill to DataCanvaswater_get_conditions — Get current hydrologic conditions ranked against the full period-of-record percentile statisticswater_dataframe_describe — List tables and columns staged on a DataCanvas by water_get_series or water_find_siteswater_dataframe_query — Run a read-only SQL SELECT against the time-series and site tables staged by water_get_series and water_find_sitesPrerequisites — The Prerequisites tool exposed by this serverInstallation — The Installation tool exposed by this serverBecause this one is hosted, setup is mostly authentication — you point your client at the endpoint and approve access. Nothing runs on your machine, so there is no runtime to keep patched.
Configuration is passed through the environment: MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE, MCP_LOG_LEVEL. Treat anything key-shaped as a real credential — scope it to the minimum the server needs, and rotate it if it ever lands in a shared config.
Among the file and storage access options, the useful question is rarely "what can it do" but "what does it cost you to run" — permissions, credentials, and how much of your context its toolset consumes. Usgs's toolset — water_list_parameters, water_find_sites, water_get_readings and 6 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by cyanheads; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
This entry was verified against Usgs's own documentation before publication; SyncDev keeps the directory reviewed rather than auto-generated.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| water_list_parameters | Static lookup of well-known USGS parameter codes with names, units, and domain. No network call. |
| water_find_sites | Find USGS monitoring sites by bounding box, state, county, or HUC watershed. Filter by site type and parameter availability. Large match sets spill to DataCanvas. |
| water_get_readings | Get the latest instantaneous values (~15 min real-time) for up to 100 USGS sites. |
| water_get_series | Get a time series of daily or instantaneous values for a site over a date range. Large ranges spill to DataCanvas. |
| water_get_conditions | Get current hydrologic conditions ranked against the full period-of-record percentile statistics. |
| water_dataframe_describe | List tables and columns staged on a DataCanvas by water_get_series or water_find_sites. |
| water_dataframe_query | Run a read-only SQL SELECT against the time-series and site tables staged by water_get_series and water_find_sites. |
| Prerequisites | The Prerequisites tool exposed by this server. |
| Installation | The Installation tool exposed by this server. |
{
"mcpServers": {
"usgs-water-mcp-server": {
"type": "streamable-http",
"url": "https://usgs-water.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
}
}
}Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
| MCP_LOG_LEVEL | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
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