DETAILED AQUIFER MAPPING OF THE MALONE, N.Y. AREA (Adirondack foothills and St. Lawrence lowlands transect) Franklin County, New York
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 been further refined by Clark (1980, 1984), Clark and Karrow (1983, 1984), Franzi and others (2007), and Franzi and others (2016). Detailed sand and gravel aquifer mapping has not been conducted in the area.
Additional water resources in this area include fractured-bedrock aquifer resources: 1) the St. Lawrence Lowlands are underlain by a regional fractured-bedrock aquifer (the Potsdam Sandstone) and 2) the Adirondack Mountains are highly fractured such that lineaments of sufficient length, storage, and hydraulic connection with sand and gravel aquifers or surface water bodies may be reliable water supplies.
Objective
The objective of this study is to define the extent and hydrogeologic framework of glacial aquifers along a transect from the Adirondack foothills to the St. Lawrence Lowlands at Malone, N.Y. and to present the results as an electronic map-format report. Several other rivers flow north out of the Adirondacks across the St. Lawrence Lowlands. Defining the hydrogeologic framework for the Malone – Salmon River valley across this physiographic transition may have transfer value to similar settings in the region.
The Potsdam Sandstone, a regional fractured-bedrock aquifer, underlies the St. Lawrence Lowland part of the study area. Additional shapefiles of overburden thickness, bedrock surface elevation, and potentiometric surface are planned if existing data are sufficient. In the Adirondack foothills part of the study area, a lineament shapefile is also planned.
Approach
The spatial extent of sand and gravel aquifers and their hydrogeologic framework will be primarily delineated through interpretation of existing data, including soil-survey maps, topographic maps, LIDAR or 10-meter elevation data, and selected well records. Limited fieldwork will include verification of deposits at sand-and-gravel pits and passive-seismic surveys to estimate depth to bedrock in areas lacking well data.
Existing hydrogeologic information and interpretations will be obtained from the literature, published USGS reports, consultants’ reports, Master’s theses and Doctoral dissertations, well records from the NYSDEC Water Well Permit Program, well records in the USGS NWIS database, and test borings and seismic-refraction studies from the New York State Department of Transportation. The USGS GWSI database in New York will be updated with new well data acquired during the study.
Investigation will include the following sequential tasks:
1 Compile necessary data, including Natural Resources Conservation Service SSURGO soils data, lidar imagery, published reports, unpublished surficial geologic maps, and well records from the NYSDEC Water Well database, the USGS NWIS database, and well data from other State and County agencies.
2 Perform passive seismic surveys (if applicable) as needed to fill data gaps in the depth to bedrock. The usefulness of this technique is highly dependent on site and subsurface conditions. Even if depth to bedrock cannot be estimated, inferences of subsurface conditions can generally be made.
3 Develop a surficial geologic map of the study area based on the above data compilation.
4 Delineate the boundary of the valley-fill aquifer system at 1:24,000 scale, including contiguous deposits of alluvium, outwash, ice-contact sand and gravel.
5 Construct about 5-10 hydrogeologic sections that depict the subsurface geology of the aquifer system.
6 Develop bedrock map layers – in uplands, lineaments and in lowlands, bedrock surface elevation and potentiometric surface, as data permit.
7 Write a brief summary report, which will include narrative text for the map product.
8 Develop a GIS dataset of the mapped sand and gravel aquifer boundaries.
9 Compile metadata for newly created GIS dataset and document methods used to produce the dataset.
10 Publish the GIS dataset and metadata as a USGS Data Release.
References
Denny, C.S., 1974, Pleistocene geology of the Northeast Adirondack region, New York: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 786, 50 p.
Clark, P., 1980, Late Quaternary History of the Malone Area, New York: University of Waterloo, Waterloo Ontario, unpublished M.S. thesis, p. 188.
Clark, Peter, 1984, Discussion of the late Quaternary history of the St. Lawrence lowland, N.Y., in Clark, Peter, and Street, J.S., Guidebook, 47th Annual Reunion, Friends of the Pleistocene, p. 1-14.
Clark, Peter, and Karrow, P.F., 1983, Till stratigraphy in the St. Lawrence Valley near Malone, N.Y Revised glacial history and stratigraphic nomenclature: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 94, no. 11, p. 1308-1318.
Clark, Peter, and Karrow, P.F., 1984, Late Pleistocene water bodies in the St. Lawrence lowland, New York, and regional correlations: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 95, p. 805-813.
Franzi, D.A., Rayburn, J.A., Knuepfer, P.L.K., and Cronin, T.M., 2007, Late Quaternary history of northeastern New York and adjacent parts of Vermont and Quebec: 70th Annual Reunion, Northeastern Friends of the Pleistocene, 70 p.
Franzi, D.A., Ridge, J.C., Pair, D.L., DeSimone, D., Rayburn, J.A., and Barclay, D.J., 2016, Post-Valley Heads deglaciation of the Adirondack Mountains and adjacent lowlands: Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies, v. 21, p. 119-146.
MacClintock, P., and Stewart, D.P., 1965, Pleistocene geology of the St. Lawrence Lowland: New York State Museum and Science Service, Bulletin no. 394, 152 p., 6 pl.
Project Location by County
Franklin County, NY
- Source: USGS Sciencebase (id: 5ec3b19282ce476925eaa470)
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 been further refined by Clark (1980, 1984), Clark and Karrow (1983, 1984), Franzi and others (2007), and Franzi and others (2016). Detailed sand and gravel aquifer mapping has not been conducted in the area.
Additional water resources in this area include fractured-bedrock aquifer resources: 1) the St. Lawrence Lowlands are underlain by a regional fractured-bedrock aquifer (the Potsdam Sandstone) and 2) the Adirondack Mountains are highly fractured such that lineaments of sufficient length, storage, and hydraulic connection with sand and gravel aquifers or surface water bodies may be reliable water supplies.
Objective
The objective of this study is to define the extent and hydrogeologic framework of glacial aquifers along a transect from the Adirondack foothills to the St. Lawrence Lowlands at Malone, N.Y. and to present the results as an electronic map-format report. Several other rivers flow north out of the Adirondacks across the St. Lawrence Lowlands. Defining the hydrogeologic framework for the Malone – Salmon River valley across this physiographic transition may have transfer value to similar settings in the region.
The Potsdam Sandstone, a regional fractured-bedrock aquifer, underlies the St. Lawrence Lowland part of the study area. Additional shapefiles of overburden thickness, bedrock surface elevation, and potentiometric surface are planned if existing data are sufficient. In the Adirondack foothills part of the study area, a lineament shapefile is also planned.
Approach
The spatial extent of sand and gravel aquifers and their hydrogeologic framework will be primarily delineated through interpretation of existing data, including soil-survey maps, topographic maps, LIDAR or 10-meter elevation data, and selected well records. Limited fieldwork will include verification of deposits at sand-and-gravel pits and passive-seismic surveys to estimate depth to bedrock in areas lacking well data.
Existing hydrogeologic information and interpretations will be obtained from the literature, published USGS reports, consultants’ reports, Master’s theses and Doctoral dissertations, well records from the NYSDEC Water Well Permit Program, well records in the USGS NWIS database, and test borings and seismic-refraction studies from the New York State Department of Transportation. The USGS GWSI database in New York will be updated with new well data acquired during the study.
Investigation will include the following sequential tasks:
1 Compile necessary data, including Natural Resources Conservation Service SSURGO soils data, lidar imagery, published reports, unpublished surficial geologic maps, and well records from the NYSDEC Water Well database, the USGS NWIS database, and well data from other State and County agencies.
2 Perform passive seismic surveys (if applicable) as needed to fill data gaps in the depth to bedrock. The usefulness of this technique is highly dependent on site and subsurface conditions. Even if depth to bedrock cannot be estimated, inferences of subsurface conditions can generally be made.
3 Develop a surficial geologic map of the study area based on the above data compilation.
4 Delineate the boundary of the valley-fill aquifer system at 1:24,000 scale, including contiguous deposits of alluvium, outwash, ice-contact sand and gravel.
5 Construct about 5-10 hydrogeologic sections that depict the subsurface geology of the aquifer system.
6 Develop bedrock map layers – in uplands, lineaments and in lowlands, bedrock surface elevation and potentiometric surface, as data permit.
7 Write a brief summary report, which will include narrative text for the map product.
8 Develop a GIS dataset of the mapped sand and gravel aquifer boundaries.
9 Compile metadata for newly created GIS dataset and document methods used to produce the dataset.
10 Publish the GIS dataset and metadata as a USGS Data Release.
References
Denny, C.S., 1974, Pleistocene geology of the Northeast Adirondack region, New York: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 786, 50 p.
Clark, P., 1980, Late Quaternary History of the Malone Area, New York: University of Waterloo, Waterloo Ontario, unpublished M.S. thesis, p. 188.
Clark, Peter, 1984, Discussion of the late Quaternary history of the St. Lawrence lowland, N.Y., in Clark, Peter, and Street, J.S., Guidebook, 47th Annual Reunion, Friends of the Pleistocene, p. 1-14.
Clark, Peter, and Karrow, P.F., 1983, Till stratigraphy in the St. Lawrence Valley near Malone, N.Y Revised glacial history and stratigraphic nomenclature: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 94, no. 11, p. 1308-1318.
Clark, Peter, and Karrow, P.F., 1984, Late Pleistocene water bodies in the St. Lawrence lowland, New York, and regional correlations: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 95, p. 805-813.
Franzi, D.A., Rayburn, J.A., Knuepfer, P.L.K., and Cronin, T.M., 2007, Late Quaternary history of northeastern New York and adjacent parts of Vermont and Quebec: 70th Annual Reunion, Northeastern Friends of the Pleistocene, 70 p.
Franzi, D.A., Ridge, J.C., Pair, D.L., DeSimone, D., Rayburn, J.A., and Barclay, D.J., 2016, Post-Valley Heads deglaciation of the Adirondack Mountains and adjacent lowlands: Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies, v. 21, p. 119-146.
MacClintock, P., and Stewart, D.P., 1965, Pleistocene geology of the St. Lawrence Lowland: New York State Museum and Science Service, Bulletin no. 394, 152 p., 6 pl.
Project Location by County
Franklin County, NY
- Source: USGS Sciencebase (id: 5ec3b19282ce476925eaa470)