We have used STIS aboard HST to search for Ly \alpha absorption lines in the outer regions of eight nearby galaxies using background QSOs and AGN as probes .
Ly \alpha lines are detected within a few hundred km s ^ { -1 } of the systemic velocity of the galaxy in all cases .
We conclude that a background line of sight which passes within 26 - 200 h ^ { -1 } kpc of a foreground galaxy is likely to intercept low column density neutral hydrogen with \log N ( H I ) ^ { > } _ { \sim } \ > 13.0 .
The ubiquity of detections implies a covering factor of \simeq 100 % for low N ( H I ) gas around galaxies within 200 h ^ { -1 } kpc .
We find , however , that the Ly \alpha lines are usually composed of individual components spread out in velocity over ranges of 300 - 900 km s ^ { -1 } .
Two sightlines show components which are unusually broad for low-redshift Ly \alpha systems , with Doppler parameters \sim 150 km s ^ { -1 } .
These may arise in intragroup gas at temperatures of 1 - 2 \times 10 ^ { 6 } K .

We discuss the difficulty in trying to associate individual absorption components with the selected galaxies and their neighbors , but show that by degrading our STIS data to lower resolutions , we are able to reproduce the anti-correlation of Ly \alpha equivalent width and impact parameter found at higher redshift .
The anti-correlation does not improve by correcting for the absolute magnitude of a galaxy in the same way as found at higher- z .
We also show that the equivalent width and column density of Ly \alpha complexes ( when individual components are summed over \sim 1000 km s ^ { -1 } ) correlate well with a simple estimate of the volume density of galaxies brighter than M _ { B } = -17.5 at the same redshift as a Ly \alpha complex .
We do not reject the hypothesis that the selected galaxies are directly responsible for the observed Ly \alpha lines , but our analysis indicates that absorption by clumpy intragroup gas is an equally likely explanation .