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Problem Nutrients and sediment are generated by and removed from agricultural and urban areas, transported in streams, and ultimately delivered to the Great Lakes. The nutrients stimulate excessive algal growth and potentially cause noxious blooms and hypoxia. Sediment increases turbidity near stream mouths and, when deposited, can smother bottom-dwelling animals, drive fish from affected areas, and decrease water depth in navigation channels. An understanding of the hydrologic and water-quality processes that generate these loads will assist water-resources managers in making informed decisions regarding prevention or mitigation of these problems. A precipitation-runoff watershed model is a tool, which can...
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A major focus of the NAWQA Program in its second decade (2002-2013) is on regional- and national-scale assessments of groundwater-quality status and trends in principal aquifers. The U.S. Geological Survey Office of Groundwater has identified 62 principal aquifers in the U.S. (U.S. Geological Survey, 2003). About 1/3 of the Nation's principal aquifers are the focus of water-quality assessments at the regional scale by NAWQA. The NAWQA framework for principal aquifer assessments considers the physical setting of the aquifer, in addition to its susceptibility and vulnerability to contamination. More information (USGS Fact Sheet 2005-3013, PDF, Adobe reader is freely available to read a PDF) Publications Contact Information...
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Introduction Relatively little data describing the quality of groundwater in New York State exists, yet groundwater is used as a source of drinking water by approximately one quarter of the population of the state. The objective of the Ambient Groundwater Quality Monitoring project is to quantify and report on ambient groundwater quality from bedrock and glacial-drift aquifers in upstate New York, and is an ongoing cooperative project between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). The project began in 2002 with a pilot study in the Mohawk River Basin and another in 2003 in the Chemung River Basin. Sampling completed in 2018 represented the conclusion...
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PROBLEM Hook Pond, an 83-acre freshwater pond in East Hampton, N.Y., has historically shown indications of impaired water quality. Impairments in this shallow pond include elevated nutrient concentrations and low dissolved oxygen concentrations in bottom waters as a result of current and historical land-use practices (Lombardo, 2015). Recent (2016) harmful algal blooms in Hook Pond and other eastern Long Island freshwater bodies have spurred local concerns about the loading of nutrients from septic systems to groundwater (and ultimately to surface water), and land-use practices that contribute to contaminated stormwater runoff. To properly evaluate the basic ecological health of the pond, an understanding of the...
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Background The proposed study will examine any existing data from the monitoring wells, weather station, and flow through the storm sewer system (supplied by Buffalo Sewer Authority) to determine the dynamics of the system during storm events. Further analysis using all available information is needed to fully understand the relationship of events to the implementation of Green Infrastructure stormwater-control measure effectiveness. Questions to be addressed include: How do pipe flows and groundwater levels respond to storms? Can the data be used to quantify water-budget components at the site? To what extent can the effect of the Green Infrastructure in reducing stormwater volumes and peaks be quantified? Based...
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Problem Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are increasingly a global concern because HABs pose a threat to human and ecosystem health and cause economic damages. HABs are a concern in waterbodies used for drinking-water supply and recreation in New York State. Toxins produced by some species of cyanobacteria (called cyanotoxins) can cause acute and chronic illnesses in humans. Aquatic ecosystem health also is affected by cyanotoxins, as well as low dissolved oxygen concentrations and changes in aquatic food webs caused by an over-abundance of cyanobacteria. Cyanobacterial HABs are typically considered to be a symptom of eutrophication. However, oligotrophic lakes worldwide, including those in the Adirondack Region of...
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The U.S. Geological Survey's Strategy to Evaluate Persistent Contaminant Hazards Resulting from Sea Level Rise and Storm-derived Disturbances SCoRR: Sediment-bound Contaminant Resiliency and Response Strategy Project Page Natural and anthropogenic contaminants, pathogens, and viruses are found in soils and sediments throughout the United States. Enhanced dispersion and concentration of these environmental health (EH) stressors in coastal regions can result from sea level rise and storm-derived disturbances. The combination of existing environmental health stressors and those mobilized by natural or anthropogenic disasters could adversely impact the health and resilience of coastal communities and ecosystems....
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The Great Lakes Restoration initiative (GLRI) template #77 (Beach Recreation Water Quality) in cooperation with 23 local and state agencies expanded the use of predictive modeling at 45 beaches throughout the Great Lakes (fig 1). Local agencies measure fecal-indicator bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli.) along with easily obtained environmental variables used as surrogates to estimate concentrations of fecal-indicator bacteria through a predictive modeling approach. The predictive modeling is being developed by the use of linear regression and/or partial least-squares techniques. The models use software developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency known as “Virtual Beach”. Each beach model is based...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: Biogeochemical and Hydrologic Assessment, Biogeochemical and Hydrologic Assessment, BiogeochemicalandHydrologicAssessment, Climate Impacts, Climate Impacts, All tags...
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The distribution of mercury (Hg) and sites of greatest Hg methylation are poorly understood in Catskill Mountain watersheds. Although concentrations of Hg in the water column are low, high concentrations of Hg in smallmouth bass and walleye have led to consumption advisories in most large New York City reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains. Mercury in natural waters can exist in many forms, including gaseous elemental mercury (Hg0), dissolved and particulate inorganic forms (Hg(II)), and dissolved and particulate methylmercury (MeHg). Most Hg in living organisms is MeHg, a highly neurotoxic form that bioaccumulates in aquatic food webs. The production of MeHg by methylation of inorganic Hg in the environment...
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Problem Previous hydrologic studies have indicated that there may be sufficient water resources underlying Richmond, New York, and Bronx Counties for use as a supplemental water supply by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) in times of a drought or other water shortage. Unfortunately, comprehensive data on the quantity and quality of the Counties' water resources are not available to make an accurate assessment. In order to evaluate the availability and suitability of these resources, representative and timely data on the ground-water and surface-water resources of these three Counties are needed. Objectives The primary objective is to develop, operate, and maintain long-term monitoring...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: Bronx County, Completed, Cooperative Water Program, GW or SW, GW or SW, All tags...
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Problem Samples were collected from 10 Key Point sites in the New York City Reservoir system as part of the cooperative USGS-New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) statewide pesticide monitoring project ( Phillips and others, 2000). Ten pesticides were detected in the key-point samples collected between January 1999 and September 2000 - the herbicides atrazine, metolachlor, simazine and prometon, the herbicide degradates deethylatrazine, hydroxyatrazine, alachlor ethanesulfonic acid (ESA), metolachlor ESA, and metolachlor oxanilic acid (OA), and the insecticide diazinon. Concentrations for most of these detections were generally low (between 0.001 and 0.05 ug/L), with the exception of...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: Biogeochemical and Hydrologic Assessment, Biogeochemical and Hydrologic Assessment, BiogeochemicalandHydrologicAssessment, Completed, Contaminants, Emerging, All tags...
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Lake Ontario is the easternmost Great Lake and has a direct drainage area of 24,720 square miles (mi2)(excluding the Niagara River and upper Great Lakes watershed), and is bounded by the Canadian Province of Ontario to the north and west and New York State to the south and east. Lake Ontario receives its primary inflow from the watersheds of the upper Great Lakes through the Niagara River near Youngstown, New York, a drainage area of 263,700 mi2. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is administering a program called the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), which was launched in 2010 to accelerate efforts to protect and restore the health of all the Great Lakes USEPA GLRI Action Plan I & II, (Great...
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PROBLEM Alley Creek, a tributary to Little Neck Bay (Queens County, New York; figure 1) has been designated as impaired by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) for primary and secondary contact and included on the 303(d) Impaired Waterways for pathogens related to combined sewer overflow contributions. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) and New York City Parks & Recreation have developed a long-term control plan (2014) and a watershed management plan (2015), respectively, to improve water quality and ecosystem health. Point and non-point sources of pathogens are implicated, including stormwater and combined-sewer outfalls, groundwater seepage, and...
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Background: The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) maintains an extensive network of reservoirs and aqueducts for water collection, storage, and transport; it supplies more than one billion gallons of drinking water daily to more than nine million people. The East of Hudson (EOH) network (fig. 1) includes thirteen reservoirs – Amawalk, Bog Brook, Boyd Corners, Cross River, Croton Falls, Diverting, East Branch, Kensico, Middle Branch, Muscoot, New Croton, Titicus, and West Branch – and three regulated lakes – Kirk Lake, Lake Gilead, and Lake Gleneida. The EOH reservoirs were put into service from 1873 to 1915 and have an estimated combined storage capacity of more than 117 billion gallons....
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Problem - The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provided technical assistance between 2001 and 2013 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in an investigation of the presence of chlorinated solvents (trichloroethylene and degradates) in ground water in the Middle-to-Lower Devonian and Upper Silurian carbonate bedrock southwest of Auburn in Cayuga County, N.Y. Pieziometric and water-quality data from the wells indicate that contaminants may have migrated in the bedrock as far as 7 miles toward discharge areas that are in an adjacent surface-water basin. The ground-water contamination site was added to the Super Fund priority list in 2003. Objectives - The objective of the work is to characterize the stratigraphy,...
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BackgroundDetailed investigations of mercury cycling and bioaccumulation have been done in the Upper Hudson River basin (upstream of the Hudson River near Newcomb, in New York's Adirondack Mountains, with a focus on the Fishing Brook sub-basin, part of the western headwaters of the Hudson River. This study is part of a National mercury study that includes a concurrent study of McTier Creek, a headwater sub-basin of the Edisto River, located in South Carolina's Coastal Plain. These two study areas provide contrasting and complementary settings for the study of mercury cycling and bioaccumulation in headwater streams with close connectivity to out-of-channel wetlands. Atmospheric deposition is the dominant source...
map background search result map search result map Mercury concentration in water, sediment, and fish in the Neversink watershed, New York Development and Operation of Groundwater, Surface-Water, and Water-Quality Monitoring Networks in Richmond, New York, and Bronx Counties, New York National Water Quality Assessment Program -- Water-Quality Assessments of Principal Aquifers Organic Wastewater and Pesticide Monitoring at Key Points in the New York City Reservoir System Ambient Groundwater Quality Monitoring in New York Mercury Cycling and Bioaccumulation in the Upper Hudson River Basin--Fishing Brook Water Quality Data for Tributaries to Lake Ontario in New York-- Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Lakewide Impairment Study Developing and Implementing Predictive Models for Estimating Recreational Water Quality at Great Lakes Beaches Simulation of Streamflow and Water Quality by a Precipitation-Runoff Model of the Tonawanda Creek Basin in Western New York Hydrogeology of a Ground-Water Contamination Site, Cayuga County, New York Sediment-bound Contaminant Resiliency and Response (SCoRR) Strategy Assessment of stormwater control measures at the Niagara River Greenway Project, Buffalo, New York Assessment of the Water Quality of Hook Pond, East Hampton, New York Bathymetry of New York City’s East of Hudson Reservoirs Assessment of fecal contamination sources to Alley Creek, Queens County, New York Cyanobacterial Occurrence and Bloom Development in Oligotrophic Adirondack Lakes Simulation of Streamflow and Water Quality by a Precipitation-Runoff Model of the Tonawanda Creek Basin in Western New York Assessment of stormwater control measures at the Niagara River Greenway Project, Buffalo, New York Assessment of fecal contamination sources to Alley Creek, Queens County, New York Assessment of the Water Quality of Hook Pond, East Hampton, New York Hydrogeology of a Ground-Water Contamination Site, Cayuga County, New York Mercury concentration in water, sediment, and fish in the Neversink watershed, New York Development and Operation of Groundwater, Surface-Water, and Water-Quality Monitoring Networks in Richmond, New York, and Bronx Counties, New York Water Quality Data for Tributaries to Lake Ontario in New York-- Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Lakewide Impairment Study Cyanobacterial Occurrence and Bloom Development in Oligotrophic Adirondack Lakes Organic Wastewater and Pesticide Monitoring at Key Points in the New York City Reservoir System Ambient Groundwater Quality Monitoring in New York Sediment-bound Contaminant Resiliency and Response (SCoRR) Strategy Developing and Implementing Predictive Models for Estimating Recreational Water Quality at Great Lakes Beaches Mercury Cycling and Bioaccumulation in the Upper Hudson River Basin--Fishing Brook National Water Quality Assessment Program -- Water-Quality Assessments of Principal Aquifers