Ambient Groundwater Quality Monitoring in New York

 

Relatively little data describing the quality of groundwater in New York State exists, yet groundwater is used as a source of drinking water by approximately one quarter of the population of the state. The objective of the Ambient Groundwater Quality Monitoring project is to quantify and report on ambient groundwater quality from bedrock and glacial-drift aquifers in upstate New York, and is an ongoing cooperative project between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). The project began in 2002 with a pilot study in the Mohawk River Basin and another in 2003 in the Chemung River Basin. Sampling completed in 2018 represented the conclusion of the third round of groundwater-quality sampling throughout upstate New York State.

 

 

Groundwater-quality samples are collected and analyzed using consistent, standardized methods. Each year, samples are collected from existing domestic and public supply wells in two to three of the 14 major hydrologic basins in New York State (north of the New York City metropolitan area). The groundwater sampling parallels surface-water sampling done as part of the NYSDEC Rotating Integrated Basin Studies (RIBS) program, and each basin is resampled once every five years. Fifty to sixty groundwater samples are collected each year from existing domestic and public supply wells using standard USGS protocols. Wells are selected to represent an approximately equal number of public and private wells, an approximately equal number of bedrock and glacial-drift wells, and to provide a representative geographic distribution of samples. Most private wells selected for sampling are identified through NYSDEC’s Water Well Program.

 

Raw water samples are analyzed for more than 100 constituents, including physical parameters, dissolved gases (through 2018), nutrients, major ions, trace elements, bacteria, radiochemicals, total organic carbon, volatile organic compounds, and pesticides. As basins are sampled for the second, third, and fourth time, approximately 20 percent of samples are collected from wells that previously have been sampled as part of this study. At the completion of the 2022 sampling season, about 900 unique wells have been sampled as part of this project. The data are made available through the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS), as well as USGS Open-File Reports for cycle years 2002 to 2016, and USGS Data Releases for cycle years 2017 to present.