Nutrients

Issue: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been manufactured and used in a variety of industries in the United States since the 1940s. PFAS are ubiquitous and persistent in the environment and have the potential to have adverse human and ecological health effects. The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partnerships has concerns about how PFAS will affect the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The CBP...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and other partners, is conducting an extensive, coordinated study of physical, chemical, and biological processes in the Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor estuary. The study integrates findings of teams from the USGS New Jersey Water Science Center and USGS Coastal and Marine Science...

The USGS New Jersey Water Science Center, in cooperation with the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), New Jersey Water Supply Authority, and the Delaware River Basin Commission, maintain the New Jersey Ambient Surface-Water-Quality Monitoring Network (ASWQMN) — a collection of monitoring stations on streams throughout New Jersey. Constituent concentration data from the ASWQMN are...

NJDEP has determined that water quality modeling of the Salem River is necessary for a nutrient (phosphorus) TMDL. However, little background data is available for the basin. Intensive field monitoring was commenced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the NJDEP in 2007 to support understanding of the nutrient loading processes in basin as well as to provide the input data to the flow and...

Nitrogen loading from the BB-LEH watershed and overlying airshed has resulted in shifts in ecosystem structure and function of the estuary reflected by the repeated occurrence of detrimental toxic and nuisance algal blooms, loss of essential seagrass habitat, and declining fisheries. Most of the nitrogen load enters the estuary from watershed surface-water inflow. While nitrogen loading has been...

To date SPARROW models have shown that land-to-water delivery losses of nutrients are significant. What processes are responsible for these 'losses' is uncertain. Certainly some of this 'loss' is storage and transport in groundwater systems. It is expected, and recent studies have suggested, that on local and regional scales topography and soil types are important factors in transport processes...

The Federal Clean Water Act, Sections 303(d) and 305 (b) mandates that states develop a list of water bodies summarizing the state’s water quality and a sub list identifying impaired water bodies for which total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) may be necessary. The USGS will collect, analyze, and publish water quality and streamflow data during 12 events at 19 stream sites (8 in the Saddle River basin...

Elevated levels of bacteria, nutrients, and suspended sediments exceeding MCLs is of concern for a number of New Jersey streams. Uncontrolled, non-point (NPS) pollution from increasing commercial and residential land development throughout the State is of special concern. For effective placement of appropriate best management practices (BMPs) and the establishment of TMDLs, water-resource managers...

Results of recent investigations indicate that certain pharmaceutical compounds and their metabolites are frequently detected in the aquatic environment and that concentrations are greatest in areas of dense population and in streams whose flow is composed partly of effluent from wastewater-treatment facilities. USGS personnel together with NJDEP staff scientists will select surface- and...

As part of the New Jersey Source Water Assessment Program, the U.S. Geological Survey previously developed models to determine the susceptibility of surface water intakes and groundwater supply wells used for public supply. Applying these models presently requires a substantial data-processing effort involving many manual steps. An adaptable, automated process is needed so that NJDEP can update...