Groundwater-quality data in the Sacramento Metro shallow aquifer study unit, 2017: Results from the California GAMA Priority Basin Project

The U.S. Geological Survey collected groundwater samples from 49 wells used for domestic and small system drinking water supplies in Amador, Placer, Sutter, and Sacramento Counties, California in 2017. The wells were sampled for the Sacramento Metropolitan (SacMetro) Shallow Aquifer Study Unit of the California State Water Resources Control Board Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program Priority Basin Project's assessment of the quality of groundwater resources used for domestic and small system drinking water supplies. Domestic and small-system wells are commonly screened at shallower depths than public-supply wells. The SacMetro study unit consisted of three "study areas" corresponding to three California Department of Water Resources groundwater subbasins: the North American and South American subbasins of the Sacramento Valley groundwater basin, and the Cosumnes subbasin of the San Joaquin Valley groundwater basin. Wells in the SacMetro study unit were in alluvial aquifers composed of sediments derived from the Sierra Nevada Mountains east of the study unit. The study unit was divided into 56 approximately 58 square kilometer grid cells, and a domestic or small-system well was sampled in 49 of those cells. Groundwater samples from all 49 wells were analyzed for field water-quality parameters, volatile organic compounds, pesticides and pesticide degradates, nutrients, major ions and trace elements, arsenic speciation, chromium (VI), perchlorate, gross alpha and gross beta particle activities, sulfur hexafluoride, tritium, carbon-14 in dissolved inorganic carbon, noble gases, stable isotopic ratios of water and dissolved nitrate, and microbial indicators. Groundwater levels were measured in 44 of the 49 wells. All results are presented in this data release, except results for pesticide and pesticide degradates. In 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program sampled 22 monitoring wells located in the SacMetro study unit as part of ongoing NAWQA studies of groundwater quality in different land-use settings. Of the 22 wells, 21 were part of an urban land-use network and 1 was part of a rice land use network. Results for analyses of perchlorate, chromium (VI), and stable isotopic ratios are presented in this data release, and results for analyses of field water-quality parameters, volatile organic compounds, pesticide and pesticide degradates, nutrients, major ions and trace elements, dissolved organic carbon, and tritium will be presented in a data release to be published separately by NAWQA. This data release supports the following publication: Groundwater Quality in the Sacramento Metropolitan shallow aquifer, California: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2019-1047, 4p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20191047.