Unified Interior Regions
New Jersey
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New Jersey is an area of wide industrial diversification and is known as the Crossroads of the East. Products from over 20,000 manufacturers can be delivered overnight to 100 million people. The greatest single industry is chemicals, with New Jersey being one of the foremost research centers in the world. Productive farmland covers about 790,000 acres and about 16.7% of New Jersey's land area.
News
President Proposes $971.2 Million FY 2021 Budget for USGS
Budget Focuses on Bringing Science, Facilities, and Infrastructure into the 21st Century
Mapping Challenge: Summary Results for City / Town Hall Structures in NJ, NY & PA
Our Mid-Atlantic City / Town Hall mapping challenge is now finished!! A huge shout-out to all of our volunteers who participated in this challenge! Here are the summary results and a timelapse our volunteer contributions.
FINISHED!! Mapping Challenge for City / Town Hall Structures in NJ, NY & PA
FINISHED!! Our Mapping Challenge for City / Town Hall Structures in the Mid-Atlantic is now complete!
Publications
A historical look at changing water quality in the Delaware River Basin
In 2019 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) launched a pilot regional Integrated Water Availability Assessment (IWAA) in the Delaware River Basin (fig. 1). IWAA is intended to explore, test, and refine systems and processes for assessing water availability for human and ecological uses and understanding their underlying controls. Water quality plays...
Murphy, Jennifer C.; Shoda, Megan E.
Bathymetry of Morris Lake (Newton Reservoir), New Jersey, 2018
Morris Lake, also known as Newton Reservoir, has been the source of drinking water for the Town of Newton, New Jersey, since the early 1900s. Although Morris Lake has been used as a source of drinking water for many years, its capacity was previously uncertain. In April 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey and the New Jersey Department of...
Nystrom, Elizabeth A.; Collenburg, Jerilyn V.
Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2010–November 30, 2011
A Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954, established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from certain reservoirs, owned by New York City, to be made under the...
DiFrenna, Vincent J.; Andrews, William J.; Russell, Kendra L.; Norris, J. Michael; Mason,, Robert R.
Microbial Source Tracking in the Lower Passaic River Basin Study Area, New Jersey
The USGS NJWSC is collaborating with the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission (PVSC) on an Urban Waters Federal Partnership project in the Lower Passaic River basin to investigate the occurrence and potential sources of E. coli fecal indicator bacteria.
The Response of Coastal Wetlands to Sea-level Rise: Understanding how Macroscale Drivers Influence Local Processes and Feedbacks
The purpose of this work is to advance our understanding of how coastal wetland responses to sea-level rise (SLR) within the conterminous United States are likely to vary as a function of local, regional, and macroscale drivers, including climate. Based on our interactions with managers and decision makers, as well as our knowledge of the current state of the science, we propose to: (a)...
Real-Time Storm Response
Coastal change forecasts and pre- and post-storm photos documenting coastal change for landfalling storms. Currently responding to Hurricane Dorian.
Investigations and Technical Assistance to the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, in Assessing the Distribution and Transport of Perfluorinated Compounds in Groundwater and Surface Water
The USGS New Jersey Water Science Center is providing technical hydrologic assistance to the U.S. Air Force Civil Engineering Center (AFCEC) at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL) in New Jersey, regarding contamination issues associated with perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) such as perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in groundwater and surface water.
Forsythe
Hydrogeology of, Simulation of Groundwater Flow in, and Potential Effects of Sea-Level Rise on the Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer System in the Vicinity of Edwin B. Forsythe Naitonal Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey
Appalachian Basin Geologic Mapping Project
The Appalachian Basin Geologic Mapping Project performs geologic mapping at local and regional scales, and geologic research in The Valley and Ridge and Appalachian Plateaus physiographic provinces. These provinces include parts of 11 states and mainly borders the Blue Ridge / Piedmont and North Interior Lowlands Provinces. Two states have Valley and Ridge geology only (GA, NJ), two have...
Water Levels in the Ten Major Confined Aquifers of the New Jersey Coastal Plain
The Coastal Plain aquifers of New Jersey provide an important source of water for more than 3.5 million people. The USGS, in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, has been measuring water levels in the confined aquifers of the New Jersey Coastal Plain every five years beginning in 1978. Persistent, regionally extensive cones of depression are present in Ocean...
United States Assessments of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources
USGS Energy Resources Program provides periodic assessments of the oil and natural gas endowment of the United States and the World (click here for information about World Oil and Gas Assessments). This website provides access to new, prioritized, assessment results and supporting data for the United States, as part...
Streamflow Characteristics and Trends in New Jersey, Water Years 1897 - 2017
Water resource managers regularly utilize streamflow statistics from the USGS for planning and regulation across the state. The impacts of climate, water use, and land use changes can alter streamflow over time. Periodically updated streamflow statistics are essential for the effective management of water resources in New Jersey.
Point and Non-Point Sources of Endocrine Disrupting Compounds and the Potential Effects on Fish and Frogs in the New Jersey Pinelands
Point and Non-Point Sources of Endocrine Disrupting Compounds and the Potential Effects on Fish and Frogs in the New Jersey Pinelands
Groundwater Response to Earthquakes
Did you know? Earthquakes can affect groundwater levels?
We often see a response to large (and sometimes not so large) earthquakes in groundwater levels in wells. The USGS maintains a network of wells for monitoring various things like natural variability in water levels and response to pumping and climate change across the U.S.
Domestic wells provide drinking water supply for approximately 40 million people in the United States. Knowing the location of these wells, and the populations they serve, is important for identifying heavily used aquifers, locations susceptible to contamination, and populations potentially impacted by poor-quality groundwater.
This dataset contains time series of water surface elevations for Morris Lake during a bathymetric survey of Morris Lake conducted in April 2018.
This dataset contains a map of the bathymetric contours of Morris Lake (Newton Reservoir) at 2-foot intervals of elevation.
This dataset contains a raster map of the areas of the bathymetric map of Morris Lake that were interpolated.
Morris Lake, also known as Newton Reservoir, has been the source of drinking water for the Town of Newton, New Jersey, since the early 1900s. Although Morris Lake has been used as a source of drinking water for many years, its capacity was previously unknown. In April 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection conducted a bathymetric sur
This dataset contains a bathymetric map of Morris Lake in the form of a raster grid of depth in feet below spillway elevation.
This dataset contains a map of the bathymetric contours of Morris Lake (Newton Reservoir) at 2-foot intervals of depth.
This dataset contains a bathymetric map of Morris Lake in the form of a raster grid of elevation in feet above the North American Vertical Datum of 1988.
This dataset contains the point depth measurements used for quality assurance of the bathymetric survey of Morris Lake conducted in April 2018.
This dataset contains elevation-area-capacity tables computed from a bathymetric survey of Morris Lake conducted in April 2018.
We used the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport (COAWST; Warner and others, 2010) model to simulate ocean circulation, waves, and sediment transport in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, during Hurricane Sandy. The simulation period was from October 27 to November 4, 2012. We used a 2012 digital terrain model (Andrews and others, 2015) to prescribe the prestorm bathymetry.
Information about scientific data collected through field activities conducted by scientists in the USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources program
Third River - Lower Passaic River Basin 2020
Lower Passic River - Third River Basin 2020
Second and Third Rivers - Lower Passaic River Basin 2020
Lower Passaic River Basin 2020
Second River - Lower Passaic River Basin 2020
Lower Passaic River - Second River Basin 2020
Domestic wells provide drinking water supply for approximately 40 million people in the United States. Knowing the location of these wells, and the populations they serve, is important for identifying heavily used aquifers, locations susceptible to contamination, and populations potentially impacted by poor-quality groundwater.
This map shows the provinces assessed by the USGS for undiscovered oil and gas resources.
Ambient SWQ Monitiring Network 2018-19 Probabilistic Sites
Ambient SWQ Monitoring Network 2015 HUC14 Sites
Ambient SWQ Monitoring Network 2016-17 Probabilistic Sites
Ambient Surface Water Quality Monitoring Network Fixed Sites
The USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Program (FIM) partners with local communities and other government agencies to develop and validate flood inundation map libraries. Click the title above to visit the USGS FIM website and learn more about available tools. Completed projects are collected on the USGS National Flood Inundation Mapper, brought to you by the USGS Wisconsin Internet Mapping Group (WiM)
National Water Information System Web Mapper (NWISWeb Mapper) Provides access to water-resources data collected throughout the state of New Jersey as presented in the form of an interactive map.
The series of surficial aquifer studies were completed to evaluate the unconfined aquifer system of the NJ Coastal Plain for use as a potential source of water. As the demand for water in the State increases and the restrictions continue on the use of water from certain confined aquifers, withdrawals on the unconfined aquifer system are expected to increase.
Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2010–November 30, 2011
A Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954, established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from certain reservoirs, owned by New York City, to be made under the...
DiFrenna, Vincent J.; Andrews, William J.; Russell, Kendra L.; Norris, J. Michael; Mason,, Robert R.
The relation of geogenic contaminants to groundwater age, aquifer hydrologic position, water type, and redox conditions in Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain aquifers, eastern and south-central USA
Groundwater age distributions developed from carbon-14 (14C), tritium (3H), and helium-4 (4He) concentrations, along with aquifer hydrologic position, water type, and redox conditions, were compared to geogenic contaminants of concern (GCOC) from 252 public-supply wells in six Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain unconsolidated-sediment aquifers....
Degnan, James R.; Lindsey, Bruce D.; Levitt, Joseph Patrick; Szabo, Zoltan A historical look at changing water quality in the Delaware River Basin
In 2019 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) launched a pilot regional Integrated Water Availability Assessment (IWAA) in the Delaware River Basin (fig. 1). IWAA is intended to explore, test, and refine systems and processes for assessing water availability for human and ecological uses and understanding their underlying controls. Water quality plays...
Murphy, Jennifer C.; Shoda, Megan E. Bathymetry of Morris Lake (Newton Reservoir), New Jersey, 2018
Morris Lake, also known as Newton Reservoir, has been the source of drinking water for the Town of Newton, New Jersey, since the early 1900s. Although Morris Lake has been used as a source of drinking water for many years, its capacity was previously uncertain. In April 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey and the New Jersey Department of...
Nystrom, Elizabeth A.; Collenburg, Jerilyn V.
Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2009–November 30, 2010
A Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954, established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from certain reservoirs, owned by New York City, to be made under the...
Russell, Kendra L.; Ockerman, Darwin; Krejmas, Bruce E.; Paulachok, Gary N.; Mason,, Robert R. Simple metrics predict salt-marsh sediment fluxes
The growth (or decay) of salt marshes depends on suspended-sediment flux into and out of the marsh. Suspended-sediment concentration (SSC) is a key element of the flux, and SSC-based metrics reflect the long-term sediment-flux trajectories of a variety of salt marshes. One metric, the flood–ebb SSC differential, correlates with area-normalized...
Nowacki, Daniel J. ; Ganju, Neil Kamal Sensitivity of streamflow simulation in the Delaware River Basin to forecasted land‐cover change for 2030 and 2060
In order to simulate the potential effect of forecasted land‐cover change on streamflow and water availability, there has to be confidence that the hydrologic model used is sensitive to small changes in land cover (<10%) and that this land‐cover change exceeds the inherent uncertainty in forecasted conditions. To investigate this, a 26‐year...
Williamson, Tanja N.; Claggett, Peter R. A preliminary assessment of hyperspectral remote sensing technology for mapping submerged aquatic vegetation in the Upper Delaware River National Parks
Hyperspectral remote sensing of submerged aquatic vegetation is a complex and difficult process that is affected by unique constraints on the energy flow profile near and below the water surface. In addition, shallow, winding, lotic systems, such as the Upper Delaware River, present additional remote sensing problems in the form of specular...
Slonecker, E. Terrence; Kalaly, Siddiq; Young, John A.; Furedi, Mary Ann; Maloney, Kelly O.; Hamilton, Don; Evans, Richard; Zinecker, Elizabeth Bioremediation in fractured rock: 1. Modeling to inform design, monitoring, and expectations
Field characterization of a trichloroethene (TCE) source area in fractured mudstones produced a detailed understanding of the geology, contaminant distribution in fractures and the rock matrix, and hydraulic and transport properties. Groundwater flow and chemical transport modeling that synthesized the field characterization information proved...
Tiedeman, Claire; Shapiro, Allen M.; Hsieh, Paul A.; Imbrigiotta, Thomas; Goode, Daniel J.; Lacombe, Pierre; DeFlaun, Mary F.; Drew, Scott R.; Johnson, Carole D.; Williams, John H.; Curtis, Gary P. Bioremediation in fractured rock: 2. Mobilization of chloroethene compounds from the rock matrix
A mass balance is formulated to evaluate the mobilization of chlorinated ethene compounds (CE) from the rock matrix of a fractured mudstone aquifer under pre- and postbioremediation conditions. The analysis relies on a sparse number of monitoring locations and is constrained by a detailed description of the groundwater flow regime. Groundwater...
Shapiro, Allen M.; Tiedeman, Claire; Imbrigiotta, Thomas; Goode, Daniel J.; Hsieh, Paul A.; Lacombe, Pierre; DeFlaun, Mary F.; Drew, Scott R.; Curtis, Gary P.
Quality of water from crystalline rock aquifers in New England, New Jersey, and New York, 1995-2007
Crystalline bedrock aquifers in New England and parts of New Jersey and New York (NECR aquifers) are a major source of drinking water. Because the quality of water in these aquifers is highly variable, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) statistically analyzed chemical data on samples of untreated groundwater collected from 117 domestic bedrock...
Flanagan, Sarah M.; Ayotte, Joseph D.; Robinson, Gilpin R.
Ground-water levels and potentiometric surfaces, Naval Air Warfare Center, West Trenton, New Jersey, 2000
Water levels were measured in wells at the decommissioned Naval Air Warfare Center in West Trenton, N.J., during 2000. Water-level hydrographs prepared from data collected at seven observation wells on the base show changes caused by seasonal and daily climate conditions and by the pumping of contaminated water from recovery wells. Stressed and...
Lacombe, Pierre J.
Second_River
Looking upstream from the bridge at the sampling site on the Second River above Washington Ave at Belleville, NJ (USGS Downstream order number 01392518)
Hopatcong Monitor
USGS scientists Lisa Carper and Jon Cohl deploy a monitoring buoy at Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey, to monitor water-quality conditions and a harmful algal bloom in near real-time.
Hopatcong Buoy
USGS scientists deploy a monitoring buoy on Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey, to monitor water-quality conditions and a harmful algal bloom in near real-time. USGS scientist Karl Braun is photographed.
Sampling Hopatcong
USGS scientists Brad Bjorklund and Jon Cohl collect a water-quality sample at Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey, to monitor a harmful algal bloom on the lake.
Monitor Buoy
USGS monitoring buoy deployed on Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey, to monitor water-quality conditions and a harmful algal bloom in near real-time.
Hopatcong Warning
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection advised the public to avoid swimming in or contact with Lake Hopatcong water due to a harmful algal bloom confirmed in June 2019 by aerial surveillance. To help study water-quality conditions and the bloom’s severity, the USGS installed a monitoring buoy on the lake in July.
Recording Groundwater Levels
USGS Scientist Robert Rossman sketching site information at a production well during water-level-site visit, Camden County.
Layne Tapedown
USGS Scientist Robert Rossman checking groundwater levels with a steel tape
Worthington groundwater tapedown
USGS Scientist Robert Rossman an electric tape to measure static water level in a production well, Burlington County.
National Oil and Gas Assessment Provinces
This is a graphic from the USGS National Oil and Gas Assessment Explorer application, which allows user to drill into 70 oil and gas assessment provinces throughout the United States.
Budget Focuses on Bringing Science, Facilities, and Infrastructure into the 21st Century
Our Mid-Atlantic City / Town Hall mapping challenge is now finished!! A huge shout-out to all of our volunteers who participated in this challenge! Here are the summary results and a timelapse our volunteer contributions.
FINISHED!! Our Mapping Challenge for City / Town Hall Structures in the Mid-Atlantic is now complete!
Storms and undeveloped coastlines can create and maintain habitat for this species, which is threatened along the Atlantic coast.
On July 9, USGS scientists deployed an advanced monitoring buoy to study water-quality conditions and a harmful algal bloom-HAB-recently detected in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey.
USGS International study promotes groundwater sustainability using innovative science and technology transfer
In August 2018, the USGS Coastal/Marine Hazards and Resources Program (CMHRP) completed the Mid-Atlantic Resource Imaging Experiment (MATRIX), a three-week cruise that acquired more than 2,000 kilometers of multichannel seismic data between Hudson Canyon and Cape Hatteras on the U.S. Atlantic margin.
Data acquired by the U.S. Geological Survey on the U.S. Atlantic Margin in August 2018 reveal new information about the distribution of gas hydrates in the sector stretching from the upper continental slope to deep water areas offshore New Jersey to North Carolina.
USGS SPCMSC personnel Jennifer Miselis (Research Geologist), Julie Bernier (Geologist), Nancy DeWitt (Geologist), Andy Farmer (CNT), Jake Fredericks (Hydrographic Technician), Kyle Kelso (Marine Operations Manager), BJ Reynolds (Engineering Technician), Chelsea Stalk (CNT), and Hunter Wilcox (CNT) will travel to southern New Jersey to conduct a nearshore geophysical survey.
Lower levels of environmental contaminants—including pesticides, flame retardants and other pollutants—were recently found in osprey eggs in the Delaware Estuary compared to those tested from the 1970s through the early 2000s.
USGS field crews are deploying storm-tide and wave sensors today from Maine to Delaware to track and study a Nor’easter forecasted to begin tomorrow.
A new article combines geomorphological and pre- and post-Hurricane Sandy observations from coastal New Jersey with a morphodynamic model to forecast the response of barrier islands to various rates of sea-level rise and explores the impact of human alterations on forecasted behavior.
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Locations
New Jersey Water Science Center
Phone: (609) 771-3900
Fax: (609) 771-3915
Contacts
New Jersey Water Science Center
3450 Princeton Pike
Suite 110
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
Phone: (609) 771-3900
Fax: (609) 771-3915