The Niles Cone is a groundwater

Groundwater

Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...

 basin in Alameda County, California

Alameda County, California

Alameda County is a county in the U.S. state of California. It occupies most of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 1,510,271, making it the 7th most populous county in the state...

, USA which is the source of drinking water

Drinking water

Drinking water or potable water is water pure enough to be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually...

 for a sizeable human urban population in the East Bay

East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)

The East Bay is a commonly used, informal term for the lands on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay, in the San Francisco Bay Area, in California, United States...

. The land area corresponding to this groundwater basin is approximately 103 square miles; (California, 1998) the Niles Cone Basin is bounded on the east by the Diablo Range

Diablo Range

The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges. It is located in the eastern San Francisco Bay area south to the Salinas Valley area of northern California, the United States.-Geography:...

 and on the west by San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

. Surface runoff

Surface runoff

Surface runoff is the water flow that occurs when soil is infiltrated to full capacity and excess water from rain, meltwater, or other sources flows over the land. This is a major component of the water cycle. Runoff that occurs on surfaces before reaching a channel is also called a nonpoint source...

 in the Alameda Creek

Alameda Creek

Alameda Creek is a large perennial stream in the San Francisco Bay Area. The creek runs for from a lake northeast of Packard Ridge to the eastern shore San Francisco Bay by way of Niles Canyon and a flood control channel.-History:...

 catchment basin accounts for much of the recharge of the Niles Cone. (Niles Cone, 2007) The Alameda County Water District

Alameda County Water District

The Alameda County Water District is a public agency in Alameda County, California, USA, which has responsibilities for managing and protecting certain groundwater resources within Alameda County. While not an administrative unit of the county government, this water district derives certain of...

 is responsible for management of the Niles Cone aquifer

Aquifer

An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...

 and has developed water treatment plants and pipelines for the conveyance of its waters to urban users. (Earth Metrics, 1990) The Alameda County Water District also performs water quality

Water quality

Water quality is the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. It is a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and or to any human need or purpose. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which...

 monitoring of the Niles Cone Basin for total dissolved solids

Total dissolved solids

Total Dissolved Solids is a measure of the combined content of all inorganic and organic substances contained in a liquid in: molecular, ionized or micro-granular suspended form. Generally the operational definition is that the solids must be small enough to survive filtration through a sieve...

 and other parameters. (California, 2001)

See also

• Arroyo de la Laguna
  Arroyo de la Laguna
  Arroyo de la Laguna is a southward-flowing stream in Alameda County, California, USA which originates at the confluences of South San Ramon Creek and Arroyo Mocho. The Arroyo de la Laguna is fed by tributaries in the Amador Valley and certain eastern slope drainages of the Diablo Range; these...
  
  
• Niles Canyon
  Niles Canyon
  Niles Canyon is a canyon in the San Francisco Bay Area formed by Alameda Creek. The canyon is largely in an unincorporated area of Alameda County, while the western portion of the canyon lies within the city limits of Fremont and Union City...
  
  
• Whitfield Reservoir
  Whitfield Reservoir
  Whitfield Reservoir is an open water storage facility constructed by the Alameda County Water District. The facility capacity is 21 million gallons and was completed in 1987. In 1990 the Alameda County Water District began to plan a new water treatment plant , which would eventually deliver...
  
  
• Mocho Subbasin
  Mocho Subbasin
  The Mocho Subbasin is the largest of the groundwater subbasins in the Livermore Valley watershed. This subbasin is bounded to the west by the Livermore Fault Zone and to the east by the Tesla Fault...
  
   - groundwater subbasin in the Livermore Valley.
• Bernal Subbasin
  Bernal Subbasin
  The Bernal Subbasin is an aquifer located in the southwestern corner of Livermore Valley Groundwater Basin, Alameda County, California, USA. All of the groundwater in Livermore Valley moves toward the Bernal Subbasin, which is bounded on the east by Pleasanton Fault, on the north by the Park...
  
  - aquifer in the Livermore Valley.