Hydrogeology of aquifers within the Fairport-Lyons channel system and adjacent areas in Wayne, Ontario, and Seneca Counties, New York

A hydrogeologic investigation was undertaken by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, within the areas shown in the Macedon, Palmyra, Newark, and Lyons 7.5-minute quadrangle maps that include parts of Wayne, Ontario, and Seneca Counties in New York. The most productive zone of aquifers within the study area is associated with the Fairport-Lyons glacial-stream channel (hereinafter referred to as the “Fairport-Lyons channel”) in southern Wayne County and adjacent areas. The Fairport-Lyons channel is a west-east-oriented bedrock channel that once served as the outlet for glacial Lake Dawson, which occupied the Genesee Valley near Rochester during the Pleistocene. The Fairport-Lyons channel and intersecting subsidiary channels are hereinafter referred to as the “Fairport-Lyons channel system.” Glacial meltwater eroded this shallow channel network into the underlying bedrock, and the channels subsequently filled with interlayered glaciofluvial sand and gravel and fine-grained lacustrine deposits. These sand and gravel deposits provide the only large supplies of groundwater in Wayne County under unconfined and confined conditions and serve a population of over 20,000 through a combination of domestic and municipal water supply wells. The largest reported well yield, 1,200 gallons per minute, is from an industrial supply well near Newark, N.Y. Much of the sand and gravel within the Fairport-Lyons channel system is generally thinly saturated; however, in three areas—near Macedon, Newark, and Lyons, N.Y.—the saturated thickness of the aquifer is sufficient to support groundwater yields adequate for municipal and industrial use, in part because of induced infiltration from the Erie Canal.