Publications

Since the early 1980s, investigations by health departments of eight counties in southern New Jersey, by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), and subsequently by the US Geological Survey (USGS), have shown that Hg concentrations in water tapped by about 600 domestic wells exceed the maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 2 μg/L. The wells are finished in the areally...

As part of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program activities in the Delaware River Basin (DELR), samples of fish tissue from 21 sites and samples of bed sediment from 35 sites were analyzed for a suite of organic compounds and trace elements. The sampling sites, within subbasins ranging in size from 11 to 600 square miles, were selected to represent 5 main land-use...

The effects of nonpoint-source contamination on the water quality of four tributaries to the Toms River in Ocean County, New Jersey, have been investigated in a 5-year study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). The purpose of the study was to relate the extent of land development to loads of nutrients and...

Intense rainfall inundated south-central New Jersey on July 12-13, 2004, causing major flooding with heavy property, road, and bridge damage in Burlington and Camden Counties. Forty-five dams were topped or damaged, or failed completely. The affected areas were in the Rancocas Creek, Cooper River, and Pennsauken Creek Basins. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) documented peak stream...

The multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) seismic method was used to delineate a fault zone and gently dipping sedimentary bedrock at a site overlain by several meters of regolith. Seismic data were collected rapidly and inexpensively using a towed 30-channel land streamer and a rubberband-accelerated weight-drop seismic source. Data processed using the MASW method imaged the...

Concentrations of suspended sediment, particulate and dissolved organic carbon, trace elements, and organic compounds were measured in samples from the heads-of-tide of the five tributaries to the Newark and Raritan Bays during June 2000 to June 2003. The samples were collected as part of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Toxics Reduction Workplan/Contaminant...

Pore water was extracted from clay-silt core samples collected from a borehole at Ocean View, west of Sea Isle City, in northeastern Cape May County, New Jersey. The borehole intersects the lower Miocene Kirkwood Formation, which includes a thick sand and gravel unit between two clay-silt units. The sand and gravel unit forms a major confined aquifer in the region, known as the Atlantic...

A field sampling experiment was designed using low-flow purging with a portable pump and sample-collection equipment for the collection of water and sediment samples from observation wells screened in the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system to determine radionuclide or trace-element concentrations for various size fractions. Selected chemical and physical characteristics were determined for...

This pilot study, done by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Delaware River Basin Commission, developed annual water budgets using available data for five watersheds in the Delaware River Basin with different degrees of urbanization and different geological settings. A basin water budget and a water-use budget were developed for each watershed. The basin water budget...

Water in the unconfined Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system in the New Jersey Coastal Plain contains elevated concentrations (above 3 pCi/L (picocuries per liter)) of the alpha-particle-emitting radionuclide radium-224. Previously, water from the aquifer system had been found to contain radium-226 and radium-228. This observation is of concern because the previously undetected presence of...

Production wells in the Westmoreland well field, Fair Lawn, Bergen County, New Jersey (the 'Fair Lawn well field Superfund site'), are contaminated with volatile organic compounds, particularly trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, and 1,1,1-trichloroethane. In 1983, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) placed the Westmoreland well field on its National Priority List of...

The Potomac-Raritan-Magothy aquifer system is hydraulically connected to the Delaware River in parts of Camden and Gloucester Counties, New Jersey, and has more limited contact with the river in Salem County, New Jersey. The aquifer system is used widely for water supply, and 122 production wells that are permitted by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to pump more...