South Carolina officials want a better idea of how much water is in the state's river basins at any one time.
And state agencies are working with Clemson University and a private contractor to do just that.
The Post and Courier reports (http://bit.ly/1Ti0hMk) the idea is to come up with a computer model showing how much water is in a river basin and what would happen if various amounts of water are taken out.
Such information could help regulators in everything from managing water during a drought to deciding whether to issue water-use permits.
The Department of Health and Environmental Control reports that almost 970 billion gallons of water was removed from the state's rivers in 2014. But much was for cooling power plants and the water was quickly returned.