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Background Past water-quality issues in the St. Lawrence River at Massena, NY resulted in a determination that selected beneficial uses were impaired in a surrounding Area of Concern (AOC) and on the Canadian side of the international boundary (Cornwall, Ontario). The benthic macroinvertebrate community or “benthos” Beneficial Use Impairment (BUI) was designated degraded because impairment metrics were unavailable or inconclusive. Recent sampling efforts by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) as part of their Rotating Integrated Basin Studies (RIBS) program indicate that macroinvertebrate communities in some sections of the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries in the Massena AOC are...
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Background : Contaminated bed sediments in much of the Buffalo River AOC (Figure 1A, 1B) were removed (dredged) between 2011 and 2015. Plans to monitor and assess the effectiveness of this management action on 8 of 9 beneficial-use-impairments (BUI), included the benthic macroinvertebrate (benthos) BUI, were revised by the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper (Riverkeeper, 2014). Funds needed to implement various monitoring efforts proposed in this plan, however, were not available at that time. The USGS-New York Water Science Center (NYWSC) and the NYSDEC propose a collaborative study to evaluate multiple lines of evidence (toxicity of sediments and the condition of benthic macroinvertebrate communities) to determine...
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Problem - Roof collapses in the Retsof salt mine near Geneseo N.Y. in March and April of 1994 propagated upward through overlying bedrock, forming a 600-ft-long rubble zone or chimney that connected the mine to a glacial aquifer system and created sinkholes at land surface. Fresh water from the glacial aquifers flowed downward into the mine until the mine was completely flooded in January 1996. The mine opening is predicted to slowly close over a period of several hundred years, with most of the subsidence occurring before 2070. As the mine opening closes, about 40 percent of the brine will be displaced from the mine and migrate upward through the rubble chimney. Continuing monitoring of chloride concentrations...
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Problem Onondaga Lake has been identified as one of the nation's most contaminated lakes as a result of discharges from industrial, sewage, and stormwater sources, and the lake received priority cleanup status under the National Water Resources Development Act of 1990. Although remediation of polluted surface-water discharges is planned, the migration of poor quality (saline) ground water into the lake also affects the quality of lake water and may impair the remediation plans. Anthropogenic contamination has been identified at several sites near the lakeshore, including the former Allied Signal soda ash production facility and a former petroleum storage facility. Saline discharges from the Allied Signal waste...
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Background Industrial discharges of toxic and bio-accumulating compounds to the Niagara River and its tributaries have occurred over many decades. High concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been found in samples of fish tissue from many locations, including three tributaries to the Niagara River: Tonawanda Creek, Two mile Creek, and Rattlesnake Creek (study reaches listed in Table 1). Study site for SPMD sampler in a tributary to the Niagara River High PCB concentrations have also been found in mussel tissues during in situ experiments in the latter two creeks PCBs have been detected in sediments from many locations, but they were generally lower than expected given the elevated PCB concentrations...
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Background The Esopus Creek is located in the Catskill Mountains of New York State and is part of the New York City (NYC) drinking water supply system. The basin was dammed in 1915 to form the Ashokan Reservoir splitting the creek into Upper (upstream of the reservoir) and Lower segments. The drainage area of Upper Esopus Creek, between the source (Winisook Lake) and the Ashokan Reservoir is approximately 192 mi2. The Schoharie Reservoir, located 27 miles north of the Ashokan Reservoir, also supplies water to Upper Esopus Creek (and to the Ashokan Reservoir) via the Shandaken tunnel. Waters from the Schoharie watershed enter Upper Esopus Creek at the Shandaken portal and travel 18 km before entering the Ashokan...
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Background: Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are increasingly a global concern because they pose a threat to human and aquatic ecosystem health and cause economic damages. Cyanobacterial HABs (CyanoHABs) represent a substantial threat to drinking-water supplies, aquatic ecosystem health, and safe recreational uses of freshwater resources in New York. 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. For these reasons, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation...
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Background Past water-quality issues in the St. Lawrence River at Massena, NY resulted in a determination that selected beneficial uses may be impaired in a surrounding Area of Concern (AOC) and on the Canadian side of the international boundary (Cornwall, Ontario). The plankton (phytoplankton zooplankton) Beneficial Use Impairment (BUI) was so designated because impairment metrics were unavailable or inconclusive. Recent investigations, however, suggest that plankton communities are relatively healthy and no longer threaten the local ecosystem. Thus, the BUI for plankton may now be outdated in all, or parts of, the St. Lawrence River in the Massena AOC. The primary goal for the Massena (and Cornwall) Remedial Action...
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The Pepacton watershed is an integral part of New York City's public-water supply system. Most of the watershed is within Delaware County with headwaters of some of its eastern tributary streams originating in Greene and Ulster Counties. Land use varies from dairy farms in the northern portion of the watershed to extensive forested areas in the south with small rural communities interspersed throughout the watershed. Sound management of the water resources in the region necessitates development of hydrologic data networks that will document current water-quality conditions in relation to watershed characteristics such as land use. Ground-water discharge to streams accounts for most of the water reaching the New...
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Problem - Since the 1980s, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has mapped over 30 sand and gravel aquifers in upstate New York at the 1:24,000-scale. These mapped aquifers include both the primary and many of the principal aquifers as designated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Although the 1:24,000-scale maps are valuable in their present form, their usefulness is limited because the important features on the maps, namely aquifer boundaries and the surficial geology, are not available as digital geographic information system (GIS) datasets. Objectives - To maximize the usefulness of the aquifer maps, GIS datasets of the 1:24,000-scale aquifer maps will be developed. To further increase...
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PROBLEM The unconsolidated aquifer in Enfield Creek Valley (fig. 1) was mapped by Miller (2000) and identified as one of 17 unconsolidated aquifers in Tompkins County that needs to be studied in more detail. Well records in Enfield Creek valley indicate that the northern part of Enfield Creek valley contains sand and gravel deposits which may be under unconfined conditions in some areas, confined in others, or both; and the southern part of the valley contains mostly sand and gravel under unconfined conditions. The valley will probably undergo increased development as the population in Tompkins County increases and spreads out from metropolitan areas. However, there is little geohydrologic data in the valley....
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Problem– Lake Ontario experienced period-of-record (1918-2017) maximum monthly average water levels during May through July 2017. NOAA lake gages recorded instantaneous peaks-of record, 249.2 at Olcott, 249.1 at Rochester, and 249.0 at Oswego and St. Vincent. These high water levels along with wind-generated waves caused flooding of thousands of residences and businesses and the erosion of miles of shoreline along the southern and eastern shorelines of the Lake. During the second week of July 2017, the USGS installed 14 temporary water-level gages and monitored this flooding through the lake’s recession. This network of water-level gages, in combination with the NOAA sites, provides a dense coverage of the lake...
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Background Borehole drilling and well-installation are costly procedures, and securing funding for new well installation for the sake of research is often difficult.The Suffolk County Water Authority (SCWA) maintains a large network of deep wells for public supply that is constantly being upgraded as water demands increase. During the drilling process, contractors record drillers’ logs and collect cores and, subsequently, often perform borehole geophysical logging for determination of aquifer properties. However, although these data may suffice for selecting a screen zone, they are lacking in more detailed hydrologic information necessary for a better understanding of Suffolk County’s hydrologic...
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Introduction The Village of Malone, Franklin County, New York is located along the Salmon River where it exits the northern foothills of the Adirondack Mountains and flows northward across the St. Lawrence Lowlands until its confluence with the St. Lawrence River. The public water supply of the Village of Malone serves a population of 13,200 (U.S. EPA SDWIS database), which includes three correctional facilities. The source of the water supply is a thick glacial aquifer south of the village in the Adirondack foothills. Surficial mapping and interpretation of deglacial history that includes at least part of the Malone area includes the work of MacClintock and Stewart (1965) and Denny (1974). Deglacial history has...
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Problem - The Onondaga Lake Partnership (OLP) is committed to improving the water quality of Onondaga Lake. Onondaga County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) has promoted best-management practices to decrease loads of nutrients and sediment from agricultural lands. Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection has abated many of the outflows from combined sanitary-and-storm sewers in the city of Syracuse and has upgraded treatment capabilities for removal of nutrients in effluent from the county's Metropolitan waste-water-treatment plant. These measures have fallen short of target levels of phosphorus and nitrogen loadings to Onondaga Lake because of inputs from nonpoint sources of pollution....
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: Ambient Monitoring, Ambient Monitoring, Ambient Monitoring, Best-Management Practices, Best-Management Practices, All tags...
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The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is collaborating with the New York Department of State (NYDOS) Office of Planning and Development to prepare a new Long Island South Shore Estuary Reserve (SSER) Coordinated Water Resources Monitoring Strategy (CWRMS). Since 2000, when the last CWRMS was published, numerous research projects and studies are demonstrating several new threats to the ecologic health and resilience of the SSER. Contemporary threats include: Eutrophic conditions brought on by high levels of nutrients from sewage treatment plant discharges, stormwater runoff, groundwater seepage, and atmospheric contributions; Increased occurrences of harmful algal blooms in the past 15 years; and, Growing concern...
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 and Land-Use Change, Climate and Land-Use Change, All tags...
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Problem - The demand for water in New York State is unevenly distributed. Because increasing competition for local supplies could lead to shortages, it is expedient to know how and where water is withdrawn, delivered, and used. There are many dimensions to water-use issues, and all should be considered to develop a full understanding of the use and delivery of water in the State. In order to apply water-use information to problems of water-demand management, many data elements need to be collected and stored in a convenient location and format. The categories of water use most commonly considered include public-water supply, domestic, thermoelectric power generation, industrial, irrigation and, to a lesser degree,...
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Background Acidification of lotic and lentic environments has been found to adversely affect the integrity of resident biological assemblages. These effects have been particularly severe in poorly buffered regions like the Western Adirondacks. Although the Clean Air Act and its amendments have greatly reduced levels of atmospheric deposition, many streams in this region are still chronically or episodically acidified. In-stream and watershed-wide liming are two directed-mitigation techniques which could be used to accelerate ecosystem recovery and help restore the condition of biological assemblages. The costs and abilities (as well as effective duration) of these techniques to improve water and soil chemistry,...
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Problem The Neversink River and Rondout Creek are historic trout fishing and recreational streams in the heart of the Catskill Mountains of southeastern NY. Waters throughout upper reaches of both rivers currently range from neutral to severely acidic due to deposition of acid rain throughout their watersheds. Fish surveys conducted by the USGS during the late 1980s and early 1990s found that some fish species and entire assemblages were absent or depressed in many tributaries and second and third order reaches of both rivers. Recent decreases in acidity of atmospheric deposition and changes in hydrologic and thermal regimes are now affecting water chemistry (e.g., pH, acid neutralizing capacity, dissolved organic...
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The coastal areas of southeastern New York (fig. 1) are highly vulnerable to tidal flooding (fig. 2). Timely evacuation of people from flood-threatened areas in advance of approaching hurricanes and nor'easters (northeast coastal storms) requires adequate flood-warning time. To begin addressing this need for immediate information on coastal flooding, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Town of Hempstead Department of Conservation & Waterways, Village of Freeport, and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, has operated a network of real-time tidal water-elevation and meteorological stations since 1997 in the coastal areas of Long Island and New York City. Each tidal water-elevation...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: Climate Impacts, Climate Impacts, Climate impacts, Coastal Science, Coastal Science, All tags...


map background search result map search result map Water-Quality Characterization of Subbasins in the Onondaga Lake Basin, Onondaga County, New York, by Land Type The Onondaga Valley Ground-Water Study, central New York Development of GIS datasets for selected aquifers in New York Estimating chronic toxicity of waters from the St. Lawrence River at Massena Area-of-Concern using two plankton species Sediment toxicity and status of benthic invertebrate communities in the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries within the Massena Area-of-Concern Development and Implementation of a Baseflow (groundwater) Monitoring Network for the Pepacton Watershed Southeastern New York Tide-Telemetry and Coastal-Flood-Warning System Simulation of migration of brine and saline water from the flooded Retsof salt mine in the Genesee Valley, New York Documenting Hydrogeologic Information Obtained from Deep-Borehole Drilling in Suffolk County, New York Water Use in New York Development of a Coordinated Water Resources Monitoring Strategy for the South Shore Estuary Reserve, Long Island NY Quantitative Assessment of Water Quality in Upper Esopus Creek: Fish, Macroinvertebrates, Periphyton, Turbidity, and Nutrients Effects of Watershed and In-stream Liming on Accelerated Recovery of Macroinvertebrate Assemblages in Tributaries to Honnedaga Lake Geohydrology of the Unconsolidated Aquifer in Enfield Creek Valley, Town of Enfield, Tompkins County, New York Sediment toxicity and status of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the remediated Buffalo River Area-of-Concern Responses of fish assemblages to changing environmental conditions in the Neversink River and Rondout Creek Lake Ontario Flood Monitoring and Mapping Harmful Algal Bloom monitoring in the Finger Lakes region, New York Track down survey of PCBs in three tributaries to the Niagara River Area of Concern (AOC) DETAILED AQUIFER MAPPING OF THE MALONE, N.Y. AREA (Adirondack foothills and St. Lawrence lowlands transect) Franklin County, New York Sediment toxicity and status of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the remediated Buffalo River Area-of-Concern Effects of Watershed and In-stream Liming on Accelerated Recovery of Macroinvertebrate Assemblages in Tributaries to Honnedaga Lake Geohydrology of the Unconsolidated Aquifer in Enfield Creek Valley, Town of Enfield, Tompkins County, New York Estimating chronic toxicity of waters from the St. Lawrence River at Massena Area-of-Concern using two plankton species Sediment toxicity and status of benthic invertebrate communities in the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries within the Massena Area-of-Concern Harmful Algal Bloom monitoring in the Finger Lakes region, New York Quantitative Assessment of Water Quality in Upper Esopus Creek: Fish, Macroinvertebrates, Periphyton, Turbidity, and Nutrients The Onondaga Valley Ground-Water Study, central New York Simulation of migration of brine and saline water from the flooded Retsof salt mine in the Genesee Valley, New York Track down survey of PCBs in three tributaries to the Niagara River Area of Concern (AOC) DETAILED AQUIFER MAPPING OF THE MALONE, N.Y. AREA (Adirondack foothills and St. Lawrence lowlands transect) Franklin County, New York Water-Quality Characterization of Subbasins in the Onondaga Lake Basin, Onondaga County, New York, by Land Type Responses of fish assemblages to changing environmental conditions in the Neversink River and Rondout Creek Development and Implementation of a Baseflow (groundwater) Monitoring Network for the Pepacton Watershed Development of a Coordinated Water Resources Monitoring Strategy for the South Shore Estuary Reserve, Long Island NY Documenting Hydrogeologic Information Obtained from Deep-Borehole Drilling in Suffolk County, New York Lake Ontario Flood Monitoring and Mapping Southeastern New York Tide-Telemetry and Coastal-Flood-Warning System Development of GIS datasets for selected aquifers in New York Water Use in New York