Geology topics
Publications and source records attributed to Irwin H. Kantrowitz.
The mission of the Water Resources Division (WAD) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is to provide the hydrologic information and understanding needed for the optimum use and management of the Nation·s water resources for the overall benefit of the people of the United States.
Introduction The South Florida Ecosystem Program is one of several study areas within the USGS Ecosystem Program. The Ecosystem Program was established to enable the USGS to enhance its scientific assistance to resource managers who require an improved scientific information base to resolve or prevent complex resource conflicts or environmental problems in specific ecosystem sites. Through 3-5-year efforts in each ecosystem site, USGS intensifies its provision of scientific information tailored to the specific management needs of that ecosystem. The information is designed to have a direct, significant, and immediate impact on management and policy decisions. It addresses regional or subregional issues that involve environmental resources such as water, minerals, and land. The sites may have as their focus such issues as water quality or water supply, environmental effects of mineral or energy use or extraction, effects of alterations in land use or land cover. Initially, the Ecosystem Program focussed on two ecosystems: San Francisco Bay and south Florida. Chesapeake Bay was added in FY 1996. Activities in each site last from three to five years, and additional ecosystem sites will be added as funding becomes available. The program is multidisciplinary and brings together scientists from appropriate disciplines to apply their diverse expertise to common problems. Disciplines in the present suite of ecosystems include land characterization, surface modeling, geospatial database management, ground- and surface-water hydrology, geophysics, ecology, geochemistry, paleontology, hydrologic modeling, and contaminant, sediment, and nutrient dynamics. The South Florida Ecosystem Program is an intergovernmental effort to reestablish and maintain the ecosystem of south Florida. One element of the restoration effort is the development of a firm scientific basis for resource decisionmaking. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is one of the agencies that provides scientific information as part of the USGS South Florida Ecosystem Program. The Program, which was begun in fiscal year 1995, provides multidisciplinary hydrologic, cartographic, and geologic data that relates to the mainland of south Florida, the Florida Bay, and the Florida Keys and Reef ecosystems. The Program complements ongoing USGS work, such as the National Water-Quality Assessment Program , the Federal-State Cooperative Program, Marine and Coastal Geology Program and Regional Geology Program , and topographic mapping and digital cartography .
Two maps give the locations and estimated yields of unconsolidated and bedrock aquifers of upstate New York, excluding Long Island. The map of surficial deposits give estimates of well yield, aquifer yield, and specific capacity; the map of bedrock units gives the same information and also delineates areas in which induced infiltration from streams into the bedrock and unconsolidated aquifers is possible. The maps are designed to assist planners in managing ground-water supplies. The maps represent data that were compiled in 1969 but not previously published. (USGS)
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The report area comprises 270 square miles, and includes most of the Towns of Babylon and Islip, and parts of the Towns of Huntington, Smithtown, and Brookhaven, in southwestern Suffolk County, New York. Almost all the water used in the area is obtained from wells screened in permeable zones of the ground-water reservoir which consists of unconsolidated deposits of gravel, sand, silt, and clay as much as 1,800 feet thick. The ground-water reservoir contains three principal aquifers. From the surface down these are (a) surficial deposits of sand and gravel of Pleistocene age, (b) sands of the Magothy (?) Formation of Cretaceous age, and (c) the Lloyd Sand Member of the Raritan Formation of Cretaceous age. At present only the upper two aquifers are tapped by wells. Natural replenishment of the ground-water reservoir in the area takes place entirely by infiltration of precipitation and averages about 215 mgd (million gallons per day). Average ground-water runoff to streams above tidewater is 114 mgd, and it is estimated that an additional 54 mgd is discharged into tidal reaches of streams. Ground-water evapotranspiration is computed to be about 10 mgd and submarine outflow from the area is estimated to be 18 mgd. The average streamflow of the area above tidewater is 120 mgd. Because of the permeable soils and low relief, direct runoff is only about 5 percent of the average streamflow. Streams are perennial along their middle and lower reaches and exhibit well-sustained low flows. Flooding rarely occurs although continued urbanization may result in minor flooding problems as additional storm sewers are constructed. Water in most of the area is generally of good quality; however, it may be contaminated locally. Some streams and parts of the water-table aquifer contain low concentrations of synthetic detergents and other dissolved constituents from domestic and industrial wastes. Salty water occurs in parts of the water-table aquifer in the area under and bordering Great South Bay and under the barrier beaches. Present information, however, indicates that submarine outflow in the artesian aquifers is sufficient to maintain the fresh water-salt water interface some distance seaward of the barrier beaches. Ground-water withdrawals in 1960 averaged 39 mgd, most of which was returned to the ground through cesspools, leaching beds, and recharge wells; pumpage did not appreciably affect the natural water balance of the groundwater reservoir. If withdrawals continue to be artificially recharged, pumpage can be increased at least fivefold before consumptive losses materially reduce ground-water levels. However, if the area were completely sewered in the future, an adequate supply of ground water for a substantially increased population could not be obtained without (a) reducing the amount of ground water in storage in the reservoir or (b) recharging treated-sewage effluent.