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Research about Massachusetts

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Massachusetts.

At least 559 records · Page 31Linked to original sources
USGS1988

Yield and quality of ground water from stratified-drift aquifers, Taunton River basin, Massachusetts

Glacial stratified-drift deposits composed primarily of sand and gravel form the major aquifers in the Taunton River basin. In the northern half of the basin, the aquifers are long, narrow, and thin, and saturated thicknesses range from about 20 feet to slightly more than 100 feet. Aquifer widths range from about 0.1 mile to 1.5 miles, and lengths range from about 1 mile to 5 miles. Aquifer yield from storage, representative of short-term yield during severe drought conditions, were estimated for 26 selected aquifers in the basin. For a 30-day pumping period, 14 aquifers have yields less than 5 ft 3 /s (cubic feet per second), 7 have yields of from 5 to 10 ft 3 /s; and 5 have yields of from 10 to 15 ft 3 /s. Aquifer yields under normal climatic conditions were estimated for the 26 aquifers by considering the cumulative yield from intercepted ground-water discharge, induced infiltration, and storage. These yield estimates are related to the estimated duration of flow of the stream that drains the aquifer. The two highest aquifer yields equal or exceed 11.9 and 11.3 ft 3 /s 90 percent of the time, respectively, if minimum stream discharge is maintained at 99.5 percent flow duration. Water for public supply was pumped in 18 of the 26 aquifers during 1983, and all the developed aquifers were pumped at a rate either equal to or greater than 70 percent of the estimated rate of aquifer yield determined in this study. The pH of the ground water ranges from 5.4 to 7.0, which categorizes the water as mildly corrosive. Hardness of the ground water ranges from 9 to 112 mg/L (milligrams per liter). No concentrations of sulfate or chloride exceeded EPA recommended limits for drinking water. However, concentrations of sodium exceeded the Massachusetts recommended limit for drinking water for those individuals on a sodium-restricted diet of 20 mg/L in 19 of the samples. Natural concentrations of iron and manganese commonly exceed the limits of 0.3 mg/L and 0.05 mg/L recommended for drinking water. Of 51 analyses for trace metals, including arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, copper, cyanide, lead, mercury, selenium, silver, zinc, and nickel, only lead, with a concentration of 60 ug/L (micrograms per liter) exceeded the recommended limit of 50 ug/L at one site. In 13 of 74 analyses for selected organic compounds, one or more of the following compounds were detected: Chloroform; carbon tetrachloride; 1,1 dichloroethane; 1,2 transdichloroethylene; tetrachloroethylene; toluene; 1,1,1 trichloroethane; and trichloroethylene. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for three of these compounds. These three compounds and their MCLs are: Trichloroethylene, 5 ug/L; carbon tetrachloride, 5 ug/L; and 1,1,1-trichloroethane, 200 ug/L. Trichloroethylene was detected in five samples. The concentration of trichloroethylene in one of these five samples exceeded the limit of 5 ug/L. A concentration of carbon tetrachloride of 0.8 ug/L was detected in one sample, which is below the limit of 5 ug/L. Concentrations of 1,1,1 trichloroethane were detected in ten samples, but none exceeded the limit for that compound.

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USGS1987

Monodisperse ferrous phosphate colloids in an anoxic groundwater plume

Groundwater samples collected near a secondary-sewage infiltration site on Cape Cod, Massachusetts were examined for colloidal materials (10–1000 nm). In two wells the water contained a population of monodisperse 100-nm particles, detected using laser-light scattering and autocorrelation data processing. SEM and SEM-EDAX analysis of these colloidal materials collected on ultrafilters confirmed the laser light scattering result and revealed that these microparticles consisyed of primarily iron and phosphorus in a 1.86 Fe to 1.0 P stoichiometric ratio. Chemical analyses of the water samples, together with equilibrium solubility calculations, strongly suggest that the ion-activity product should exceed the solubility product of a 100-nm diameter predominantly vivianite-type (Fe 3 (PO 4 ) 2 · 8H 2 O) colloidal phase. In light of our results, we conclude that these microparticles were formed by sewage-derived phosphate combining with ferrous iron released from the aquifer solids, and that these colloids may be moving in the groundwater flow. Such a subsurface transport process could have major implications regarding the movement of particle-reactive pollutants traditionally viewed as non-mobile in groundwater.

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USGS1987

Growth determinations for unattached bacteria in a contaminated aquifer

Growth rates of unattached bacteria in groundwater contaminated with treated sewage and collected at various distances from the source of contamination were estimated by using frequency of dividing cells and tritiated-thymidine uptake and compared with growth rates obtained with unsupplemented, closed-bottle incubations. Estimates of bacterial generation times [(In 2)/ μ ] along a 3-km-long transect in oxygen-depleted (0.1 to 0.7 mg of dissolved oxygen liter -1 ) groundwater ranged from 16 h at 0.26 km downgradient from an on-land, treated-sewage outfall to 139 h at 1.6 km and correlated with bacterial abundance ( r 2 = 0.88 at P < 0.001). Partitioning of assimilated thymidine into nucleic acid generally decreased with distance from the contaminant source, and one population in heavily contaminated groundwater assimilated little thymidine during a 20-h incubation. Several assumptions commonly made when frequency of dividing cells and tritiated-thymidine uptake are used were not applicable to the groundwater samples.

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USGS1987

Lead poisoning in Canada geese on Plum Island, Massachusetts (USA)

During December 1983 and early January 1984, about 200 Canada geese (Branta canadensis) died of lead poisoning at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island, Massachusetts. In an effort to determine the source of lead, 100 bottom samples were taken from a refuge impoundment where much of the mortality/morbidity occurred. An average of 157,150 pellets/ha was found with a range of 64,582 to 322,910 pellets/ha. Water levels in this impoundment were low when Canada geese arrived, making shot more readily available to the geese and contributing to the outbreak. To minimize the risk of Canada geese being exposed to lead shot poisoning at this location in the future, we recommend several corrective manipulations of habitat.

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USGS1986

Estimation of recharge rates to the sand and gravel aquifer using environmental tritium, Nantucket Island, Massachusetts

Estimation of the average annual rate of ground-water recharge to sand and gravel aquifers using elevated tritium concentrations in ground water is an alternative to traditional steady-state and water-balance recharge-rate methods. The concept of the tritium tracer method is that the average annual rate of ground-water recharge over a period of time can be calculated from the depth of the peak tritium concentration in the aquifer. Assuming that ground-water flow is vertically downward and that aquifer properties are reasonably homogeneous, and knowing the date of maximum tritium concentration in precipitation and the current depth to the tritium peak from the water table, the average recharge rate can be calculated. The method, which is a direct-measurement technique, was applied at two sites on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. At site 1, the average annual recharge rate between 1964 and 1983 was 26.1 inches per year, or 68 percent of the average annual precipitation, and the estimated uncertainty is ?15 percent. At site 2, the multilevel water samplers were not constructed deep enough to determine the peak concentration of tritium in ground water. The tritium profile at site 2 resembles the upper part of the tritium profile at site 1 and indicates that the average recharge rate was at least 16 .7 inches per year, or at least 44 percent of the average annual precipitation. The Nantucket tritium recharge rates clearly are higher than rates determined elsewhere in southeastern Massachusetts using the tritium, water-table-fluctuation, and water-balance (Thornthwaite) methods, regardless of the method or the area. Because the recharge potential on Nantucket is so high (runoff is only 2 percent of the total water balance), the tritium recharge rates probably represent the effective upper limit for ground-water recharge in this region. The recharge-rate values used by Guswa and LeBlanc (1985) and LeBlanc (1984) in their ground-water-flow computer models of Cape Cod are 20 to 30 percent lower than this upper limit. The accuracy of the tritium method is dependent on two key factors: the accuracy of the effective-porosity data, and the sampling interval used at the site. For some sites, the need for recharge-rate data may require a determination as statistically accurate as that which can be provided by the tritium method. However, the tritium method is more costly and more time consuming than the other methods because numerous wells must be drilled and installed and because many water samples must be analyzed for tritium, to a very small level of analytical detection. For many sites, a less accurate, less expensive, and faster method of recharge-rate determination might be more satisfactory. The factor that most seriously limits the usefulness of the tritium tracer method is the current depth of the tritium peak. Water with peak concentrations of tritium entered the ground more than 20 years ago, and, according to the Nantucket data, that water now is more than 100 feet below the land surface. This suggests that the tracer method will work only in sand and gravel aquifers that are exceedingly thick by New England standards. Conversely, the results suggest that the method may work in areas where saturated thicknesses are less than 100 feet and the rate of vertical ground-water movement is relatively slow, such as in till and in silt- and clay-rich sand and gravel deposits.

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USGS1985

Biogeochemistry of aquatic humic substances in Thoreau's Bog, Concord, Massachusetts

Thoreau's Bog is an ombrotrophic floating—mat Sphagnum bog developed in a glacial kettlehole and surrounded by a red maple swamp. Concentrations of dissolved organic carbon in the porewater of the bog average 36 mg/L and are greatest near the surface, especially during late summer. This distribution suggest that the upper layer of living and dead Sphagnum and moderately humified peat is the major site of dissolved organic material production in the bog. The dissolved organic material consists mainly of aquatic fulvic acid (67%) and hydrophilic acids (20%); these organic acids control the pH (typically 4 or somewhat lower) of the bogwater. The elemental, amino acid, carbohydrate, and carboxylic acid contents of fulvic acid from the bog are similar to those of aquatic fulvic acid from the nearby Shawsheen River, although the phenolic hydroxyl content of fulvic acid from Thoreau's Bog is higher. The hydrophilic acids have greater amino acid, carbohydrate, and carboxylic acid contents than the fulvic acid, consistent with the hypothesis that hydrophilic acids are more labile intermediate compounds in the formation of fulvic acid.

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USGS1985

Estimated water and nutrient inflows and outflows Lake Cochituate, eastern Massachusetts, 1977-79

Streamflow was the major source of water and nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) to Lake Cochituate, followed by ground water, and then precipitation during April 1978 through March 1979. Compared to all sources during that period, streams contributed 7,217 million gallons (a little over 82 percent) of water, 63 ,000 pounds (between 50 and 60 percent) of nitrogen, and 3,000 pounds (94 percent) of phosphorus. A little over 60 percent of all the water that entered Lake Cochituate flowed from Fisk Pond. This single source transported about 38,000 pounds of nitrogen and 2,000 pounds of phosphorus. Ground-water inflow to Lake Cochituate occurs along its shoreline except at the north end of Lake Cochituate 's North Pond where natural seepage from the lake is occurring and at locations on the lake 's Middle and South Ponds where municipal wells induce infiltration of lake water amounting to 1,228 million gallons for that period. Discharge of ground water to the lake was estimated to range from 462 to 816 million gallons and transported from 31,000 to 55,000 pounds of nitrogen and from 46 to 82 pounds of phosphorus. Bulk precipitation was estimated to contribute about the same volume of water to the lake as ground water but double its phosphorus load. However, the load of nitrogen, 8000 pounds, from bulk precipitation was the smallest of any source.

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USGS1985

A drowned Holocene barrier spit off Cape Ann, Massachusetts

Seismic profiles and bathymetric contours reveal a drowned barrier spit on Jeffreys Ledge off Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Seaward-dipping internal reflectors indicate that a regressive barrier formed during the early Holocene low sea-level stillstand. Preservation of the barrier spit may have been favored by its large size (as much as 20 m thick), by an ample sediment supply from unconsolidated glacial drift, and by the subsequent rapid sea-level rise. The barrier spit is present in water depths of 50 to 70 m and indicates a low relative sea-level stand of &minus;50 m. This value confirms the low relative sea-level stand of &minus;47 m postulated by Oldale et al. (1983) for northeast Massachusetts and New Hampshire on the basis of the submerged delta of the Merrimack River, and it indicates that the barrier and delta were contemporaneous (Oldale et al., 1983).

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USGS1984

Lithotectonic assemblages as portrayed on the new bedrock geologic map of Massachusetts.

Scale of 1:250,000. The map units are grouped into eight lithotectonic packages. Five "zones" of older rocks that cover the whole state are, from west to east, the Taconic-Berkshire, Rowe-Hawley, Bronson Hill, Nashoba, and Milford-Dedham. In central and western Massachusetts, these zones are overlain by the Connecticut Valley and Merrimack "belts" of Silurian-Devonian, and local Carboniferous, strata; the two belts are distinguished from each other on the basis of the lithofacies of the Silurian strata. In eastern Massachusetts, the Milford-Dedham Zone also includes Silurian-Devonian, Carboniferous, Mesozoic, and Tertiary strata. A Mesozoic "basin" is separately identified in the Connecticut Valley region

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USGS1984

Movement and fate of solutes in a plume of sewage-contaminated ground water, Cape Cod, Massachusetts: U.S. Geological Survey toxic waste ground-water contamination program

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has begun a nationwide program to study the fate of toxic wastes in groundwater. Several sites where groundwater is known to be contaminated are being studied by interdisciplinary teams of geohydrologists, chemists, and microbiologists. The objective of these studies is to obtain a thorough quantitative understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological processes of contaminant generation, migration, and attenuation in aquifers. One of the sites being studied by the USGS under this program is a plume of sewage contaminated groundwater on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The plume was formed by land disposal of treated sewage to a glacial outwash aquifer since 1936. This report summarizes results obtained during the first year of research at the Cape Cod s under the USGS Toxic-Waste Ground-Water Contamination Program. The seven papers included in this volume were presented at the Toxic Waste Technical Meeting, Tucson, Arizona, in March 1984. They provide an integrated view of the subsurface distribution of contaminants based on the first year of research and discuss hypotheses concerning the transport processes that affect the movement of contaminants in the plume. (See W89-09053 thru W89-09059)

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