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Research about Cape Cod

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Cape Cod.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
USGS1996

Spatial and temporal distribution of specific conductance, boron, and phosphorus in a sewage-contaminated aquifer near Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Spatial and temporal distributions of specific conductance, boron, and phosphorus were determined in a sewage-contaminated sand and gravel aquifer near Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The source of contamination is secondarily treated sewage that has been discharged onto rapid- infiltration sand beds at the Massachusetts Military Reservation since 1936. Contaminated ground water containing as much as 2 milligrams per liter of dissolved phosphorus is discharging into Ashumet Pond, and there is concern that the continued discharge of phosphorus into the pond will accelerate eutrophication of the pond. Water-quality data collected from observation wells and multilevel samplers from June through July 1995 were used to delineate the spatial distributions of specific conductance, boron, and phosphorus. Temporal distributions were determined using sample-interval-weighted average concen- trations calculated from data collected in 1993, 1994, and 1995. Specific conductances were greater than 400 microsiemens per centimeter at 25C as far as 1,200 feet downgradient from the infiltration beds. Boron concentrations were greater than 400 micrograms per liter as far as 1,800 feet down- gradient from the beds and phosphorus concen- trations were greater than 3.0 milligrams per liter as far as 1,200 feet from the beds. Variability in distributions of specific conductance and boron concentrations is attributed to the history and distribution of sewage disposal onto the infiltration beds. The distribution of phosphorus concentrations also is related to the history and distribution of sewage disposal onto the beds but additional variability is caused by chemical interactions with the aquifer materials. Temporal changes in specific conductance and boron from 1993 to 1995 were negligible, except in the lower part of the plume (below an altitude of about 5 feet above sea level), where changes in weighted-average specific conductance were greater than 100 microsiemens per centimeter at 25C. Temporal changes in phosphorus generally were small except in the lower part of the plume, where weighted-average phosphorus concentrations decreased more than 1.3 milligrams per liter from 1993 to 1994. This decrease was accompanied by an increase in specific conductance. High concen- trations of phosphorus associated with low and moderate specific conductances possibly are the result of rapid phosphorus desorption in response to an influx of uncontaminated ground water. As a result of the cessation of sewage disposal in December 1995, clean, oxygenated water moving into contaminated parts of the aquifer may cause rapid desorption of sorbed phosphorus and temporarily result in high dissolved phosphorus concentrations in the aquifer.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1996

Geochemical and hydrologic controls on phosphorus transport in a sewage-contaminated sand and gravel aquifer near Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Currently (1993), about 170 kg/yr of phosphorus discharges into Ashumet Pond on Cape Cod from a plume of sewage-contaminated ground water. Phosphorus in the plume is mobile in two distinct geochemical environments--an anoxic zone containing dissolved iron and a suboxic zone containing dissolved oxygen. Phosphorus mobility in the suboxic zone is due to saturation of available sorption sites. Phosphorus loading to Ashumet Pond may increase significantly after sewage disposal is stopped due to phosphorus desorption from sediment surfaces.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1995

Transport behavior of groundwater protozoa and protozoan-sized microspheres in sandy aquifer sediments

Transport behaviors of unidentified flagellated protozoa (flagellates) and flagellate-sized carboxylated microspheres in sandy, organically contaminated aquifer sediments were investigated in a small-scale (1 to 4-m travel distance) natural-gradient tracer test on Cape Cod and in flow-through columns packed with sieved (0.5-to 1.0-mm grain size) aquifer sediments. The minute (average in situ cell size, 2 to 3 μ m) flagellates, which are relatively abundant in the Cape Cod aquifer, were isolated from core samples, grown in a grass extract medium, labeled with hydroethidine (a vital eukaryotic stain), and coinjected into aquifer sediments along with bromide, a conservative tracer. The 2- μ m flagellates appeared to be near the optimal size for transport, judging from flowthrough column experiments involving a polydispersed (0.7 to 6.2 μ m in diameter) suspension of carboxylated microspheres. However, immobilization within the aquifer sediments accounted for a log unit reduction over the first meter of travel compared with a log unit reduction over the first 10 m of travel for indigenous, free-living groundwater bacteria in earlier tests. High rates of flagellate immobilization in the presence of aquifer sediments also was observed in the laboratory. However, immobilization rates for the laboratory-grown flagellates (initially 4 to 5 μ m) injected into the aquifer were not constant and decreased noticeably with increasing time and distance of travel. The decrease in propensity for grain surfaces was accompanied by a decrease in cell size, as the flagellates presumably readapted to aquifer conditions. Retardation and apparent dispersion were generally at least twofold greater than those observed earlier for indigenous groundwater bacteria but were much closer to those observed for highly surface active carboxylated latex microspheres. Field and laboratory results suggest that 2- μ m carboxylated microspheres may be useful as analogs in investigating several abiotic aspects of flagellate transport behavior in groundwater.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1995

Geochemical and hydrologic controls on phosphorus transport in a sewage-contaminated sand and gravel aquifer near Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

The disposal of secondarily treated sewage onto rapid infiltration sand beds at the Massachusetts Military Reservation, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, has created a sewage plume in the underlying sand and gravel aquifer; the part of the\x11sewage plume that contains dissolved phosphorus extends about 2,500 feet downgradient of the sewage-disposal beds. A part of the plume that\x11contains nearly 2 milligrams per liter of phosphorus currently (1993) discharges into Ashumet Pond along about 700 feet of shoreline. The sewage plume discharges from about 59 to about 76 kilograms of phosphorus per year into the pond. Hydraulic-head measurements indicate that the north end of Ashumet Pond is a ground-water sink and an increased component of ground-water discharge and phosphorus flux into\x11the pond occurs at higher water levels. Phosphorus was mobile in ground water in two distinct geochemical environments-an anoxic zone that contains no dissolved oxygen and as much as 25\x11milligrams per liter of dissolved iron, and a more areally extensive suboxic zone that contains little or no iron, low but detectable dissolved oxygen, and as much as 12 milligrams per liter of dissolved manganese. Dissolved phosphorus is mobile in the suboxic geochemical environment because continued phosphorus loading has filled available sorption sites in the aquifer. Continued disposal of sewage since 1936 has created a large reservoir of sorbed phosphorus that is much greater than the mass of dissolved phosphorus in the ground water; the average ratio of sorbed to dissolved phosphorus in the anoxic and suboxic parts of the sewage plume were 31:1 and 155:1, respectively. Column experiments indicate that phosphorus in the anoxic core of the plume containing dissolved iron may be immobilized within 17 years by sorption and coprecipitation with new iron oxyhydroxides following the cessation of sewage disposal and the introduction of uncontaminated oxygenated ground water into the aquifer in December 1995. Residual oxygen demand associated with sorbed organic compounds and ammonia could retard the movement of oxygenated water into the aquifer. Sorbed phosphorus in the suboxic zone of the aquifer will continue to desorb into the ground water and will remain mobile in the ground water for perhaps hundreds of years. Also, the introduction of uncontaminated water into the aquifer may cause dissolved-phosphorus concentrations in the suboxic zone of the aquifer to increase sharply and remain higher than precessation levels for many years due to the desorption of loosely bound phosphorus. Data from three sampling sites, located along the eastern and western boundaries of the sewage plume and downgradient of abandoned sewage-disposal beds, indicate that ground-water mixing and phosphorus desorption may already be occurring in the aquifer in response to the introduction of uncontaminated recharge water into previously contaminated parts of the aquifer.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1994

Use of molecular techniques to evaluate the survival of a microorganism injected into an aquifer

A PCR primer set and an internal probe that are specific for Pseudomonas sp. strain B13, a 3-chlorobenzoate-metabolizing strain, were developed. Using this primer set and probe, we were able to detect Pseudomonas sp. strain B13 DNA sequences in DNA extracted from aquifer samples 14.5 months after Pseudomonas sp. strain B13 had been injected into a sand and gravel aquifer. This primer set and probe were also used to analyze isolates from 3-chlorobenzoate enrichments of the aquifer samples by Southern blot analysis. Hybridization of Southern blots with the Pseudomonas sp. strain B13-specific probe and a catabolic probe in conjunction with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of ribosome genes was used to determine that viable Pseudomonas sp. strain B13 persisted in this environment. We isolated a new 3-chlorobenzoate-degrading strain from one of these enrichment cultures. The B13-specific probe does not hybridize to DNA from this isolate. The new strain could be the result of gene exchange between Pseudomonas sp. strain B13 and an indigenous bacterium. This speculation is based on an RFLP pattern of ribosome genes that differs from that of Pseudomonas sp. strain B13, the fact that identically sized restriction fragments hybridized to the catabolic gene probe, and the absence of any enrichable 3-chlorobenzoate-degrading strains in the aquifer prior to inoculation.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1994

Autotrophic, hydrogen-oxidizing, denitrifying bacteria in groundwater, potential agents for bioremediation of nitrate contamination

Addition of hydrogen or formate significantly enhanced the rate of consumption of nitrate in slurried core samples obtained from an active zone of denitrification in a nitrate-contaminated sand and gravel aquifer (Cape Cod, Mass.). Hydrogen uptake by the core material was immediate and rapid, with an apparent K m of 0.45 to 0.60 μM and a V max of 18.7 nmol cm -3 h -1 at 30°C. Nine strains of hydrogen-oxidizing denitrifying bacteria were subsequently isolated from the aquifer. Eight of the strains grew autotrophically on hydrogen with either oxygen or nitrate as the electron acceptor. One strain grew mixotrophically. All of the isolates were capable of heterotrophic growth, but none were similar to Paracoccus denitrificans , a well-characterized hydrogen-oxidizing denitrifier. The kinetics for hydrogen uptake during denitrification were determined for each isolate with substrate depletion progress curves; the K m s ranged from 0.30 to 3.32 μM, with V max s of 1.85 to 13.29 fmol cell -1 h -1 . Because these organisms appear to be common constituents of the in situ population of the aquifer, produce innocuous end products, and could be manipulated to sequentially consume oxygen and then nitrate when both were present, these results suggest that these organisms may have significant potential for in situ bioremediation of nitrate contamination in groundwater.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1994

Particle-tracking analysis of contributing areas of public-supply wells in simple and complex flow systems, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Steady-state, two-and three-dimensional, ground-water flow models coupled with a particle- tracking program were evaluated to determine their effectiveness in delineating contributing areas of existing and hypothetical public-supply wells pumping from two contrasting stratified-drift aquifers of Cape Cod, Mass. Several of the contri- buting areas delineated by use of the three- dimensional models do not conform to simple ellipsoidal shapes that are typically delineated by use of a two-dimensional analytical and numerical modeling techniques, include dis- continuous areas of the water table, and do not surround the wells. Because two-dimensional areal models do not account for vertical flow, they cannot adequately represent many of the hydro- geologic and well-design variables that were shown to complicate the delineation of contributing areas in these flow systems, including the presence of discrete lenses of 1ow hydraulic conductivity, large ratios of horizontal to ver- tical hydraulic conductivity, shallow streams, partially penetrating supply wells, and 1ow pumping rates (less than 0.1 million gallons per day). Nevertheless, contributing areas delineated for two wells in the simpler of the two flow systems--a thin (less than 100 feet), single- layer, uniform aquifer with near-ideal boundary conditions--were not significantly different for the two- or three-dimensional models of the natural system, for a pumping rate of 0.5 million gallons per day. Use of particle tracking helped identify the source of water to simulated wells, which included precipitation recharge, wastewater return flow, and pond water. Pond water and wastewater return flow accounted for as much as 73 and 40 percent, respectively, of the water captured by simulated wells.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1994

Hydrologic and chemical data from an experiment to examine temporal variability in water samples from screened wells on Cape Cod, Massachusetts

An experiment was designed to evaluate the changing chemical composition of the water pumped from a well screened in a physically and chemically heterogenous aquifer. Well F453-63, at the U.S. Geological Survey Toxic-Substances Hydrology research site located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was selected because it was known that the screen penetrated both the oxic and anoxic zones of the sewage plume from the Otis Air Base sewage-disposal sand beds. The experiment was conducted on August 12, 1992. Well F453-63 was sampled over time as it was pumped continuously, and three multilevel samplers were used to document the vertical distribution of selected chemicals in the ground water in the immediate vicinity of the well. All water samples obtained during the experiment were analyzed in the field for specific conductance and pH. The samples were subsequently analyzed for concentrations of ferrous iron (Fe+2), boron, calcium, chloride, iron (Fe total), phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, manganese, sodium, zinc, and nitrogen species, including nitrous oxide, ammonium, nitrite and nitrate. The results of these chemical analyses along with appropriate physical measurements of the site and aquifer material are documented in this data report.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1993

Petrology and U-Pb geochronology of buried Avalonian plutonic rocks on southeastern Cape Cod

Plutonic rocks have been intersected by two separate drill holes on southeastern Cape Cod. Hole CC2 is located at Chatham Harbor about 7 km south of the Nauset anomaly, an east-northeast-trending magnetic lineament that was considered to separate the distinct plutonic zones of Avalon terrane. This drill hole intersected weakly foliated, fairly homogeneous biotite granite. Zircons from this granite give a U-Pb age of 584+9/-8 Ma. Hole CC1 is located near North Eastham, about 12 km north of the Nauset anomaly. The drill core intersected foliated, sheared, biotite granodiorite and biotite-hornblende-clinopyroxene-quartz gabbro, metamorphosed to greenschist facies. The deformed and altered state of these rocks, as well as their geochemistry, suggest that their origin and possibly their ages are distinct from the granite in hole CC2. No datable zircons were obtained from rocks in CC1. The age of 584 Ma for the CC2 granite sample is within the range of published ages for plutonic rocks of the Avalon terrane and confirms the suggestion of Hutchinson et al. (1988) that the southern plutonic zone is a part of the Avalon terrane. The data also indicate that the Nauset anomaly is not the Avalon-Meguma terrane boundary in this area.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1993

Surface chemical effects on colloid stability and transport through natural porous media

Surface chemical effects on colloidal stability and transport through porous media were investigated using laboratory column techniques. Approximately 100 nm diameter, spherical, iron oxide particles were synthesized as the mobile colloidal phase. The column packing material was retrieved from a sand and gravel aquifer on Cape Cod, MA. Previous studies have indicated enhanced stability and transport of iron oxide particles due to specific adsorption of some inorganic anions on the iron oxide surface. This phenomenon was further evaluated with an anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate. Surfactants constitute a significant mass of the contaminant loading at the Cape Cod site and their presence may contribute to colloidal transport as a significant transport mechanism at the site. Other studies at the site have previously demonstrated the occurrence of this transport mechanism for iron phosphate particles. Photon correlation spectroscopy, micro-electrophoretic mobility, and scanning electron microscopy were used to evaluate particle stability, mobility and size. Adsorption of negatively charged organic and inorganic species onto the surface of the iron oxide particles was shown to significantly enhance particle stability and transport through alterations of the electrokinetic properties of the particle surface. Particle breakthrough generally occurred simultaneously with tritiated water, a conservative tracer. The extent of particle breakthrough was primarily dependent upon colloidal stability and surface charge.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1993

Effect of treated-sewage contamination upon bacterial energy charge, adenine nucleotides, and DNA content in a sandy aquifer on Cape Cod

Changes in adenylate energy charge (EC A ) and in total adenine nucleotides (A T ) and DNA content (both normalized to the abundance of free-living, groundwater bacteria) in response to carbon loading were determined for a laboratory-grown culture and for a contaminated aquifer. The latter study involved a 3-km-long transect through a contaminant plume resulting from continued on-land discharge of secondary sewage to a shallow, sandy aquifer on Cape Cod, Mass. With the exception of the most contaminated groundwater immediately downgradient from the contaminant source, DNA and adenylate levels correlated strongly with bacterial abundance and decreased exponentially with increasing distance downgradient. EC A s (0.53 to 0.60) and the ratios of ATP to DNA (0.001 to 0.003) were consistently low, suggesting that the unattached bacteria in this groundwater study are metabolically stressed, despite any eutrophication that might have occurred. Elevated EC A s (up to 0.74) were observed in glucose-amended groundwater, confirming that the metabolic state of this microbial community could be altered. In general, per-bacterium DNA and ATP contents were approximately twofold higher in the plume than in surrounding groundwater, although EC A and per-bacterium levels of A T differed little in the plume and the surrounding uncontaminated groundwater. However, per-bacterium levels of DNA and A T varied six- and threefold, respectively, during a 6-h period of decreasing growth rate for an unidentified pseudomonad isolated from contaminated groundwater and grown in batch culture.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1991

Denitrification in nitrate-contaminated groundwater: Occurrence in steep vertical geochemical gradients

A relatively narrow vertical zone (5–6 m thick) of NO 3 − containing groundwater was identified using multilevel sampling devices in a sand and gravel aquifer on Cape Cod, MA, USA. The aquifer has been chronically contaminated by surface disposal of treated sewage 0.3 km upgradient from the study area. The NO 3 − zone was anoxic and contained high concentrations of N 2 O (16.5 μM), suggesting that it was a zone of active denitrification. Denitrifying activity was confirmed with direct measurement using acetylene block incubations with aquifer core material; the peak rate was 2.4 nmol N reduced (g sed) −1 day −1 . Concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon and N 2 were close to atmospheric equilibrium in uncontaminated groundwater, but were more than 2 times higher within the contaminant plume. Excess CO 2 and N 2 suggested in situ formation with a stoichiometry of C and N mineralized via denitrification of 0.8 (C/N). Denitrification within the aquifer resulted in an increase in the natural δ 15 N of NO 3 − (from +13.6 to +42.0%.) and the N 2 produced, with an isotopic enrichment factor, ϵ, of −13.9%.. Vertical profiles of NH 4 + and δ 15 N of NH 4 + indicated that dissimilatory reduction of NO 3 − to NH 4 + was also occurring but mass balance calculations indicated that denitrification was the predominant process. These results demonstrate that a combination approach using field mass balance, stable isotope analysis, and laboratory incubations yields useful insight as to the significance of denitrification in aquifer sediments and that closely spaced vertical sampling is necessary to adequately quantify the processes controlling C and N transport and transformation within these environments.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1991

In situ measurement of methane oxidation in groundwater by using natural-gradient tracer tests

Methane oxidation was measured in an unconfined sand and gravel aquifer (Cape Cod, Mass.) by using in situ natural-gradient tracer tests at both a pristine, oxygenated site and an anoxic, sewage-contaminated site. The tracer sites were equipped with multilevel sampling devices to create target grids of sampling points; the injectate was prepared with groundwater from the tracer site to maintain the same geochemical conditions. Methane oxidation was calculated from breakthrough curves of methane relative to halide and inert gas (hexafluoroethane) tracers and was confirmed by the appearance of 13 C-enriched carbon dioxide in experiments in which 13 C-enriched methane was used as the tracer. A V max for methane oxidation could be calculated when the methane concentration was sufficiently high to result in zero-order kinetics throughout the entire transport interval. Methane breakthrough curves could be simulated by modifying a one-dimensional advection-dispersion transport model to include a Michaelis-Menten-based consumption term for methane oxidation. The K m values for methane oxidation that gave the best match for the breakthrough curve peaks were 6.0 and 9.0 μ M for the uncontaminated and contaminated sites, respectively. Natural-gradient tracer tests are a promising approach for assessing microbial processes and for testing in situ bioremediation potential in groundwater systems.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1990

Intragranular diffusion: An important mechanism influencing solute transport in clastic aquifers?

Quantification of intragranular porosity in sand-size material from an aquifer on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, by scanning electron microscopy, mercury injection, and epifluorescence techniques shows that there are more reaction sites and that porosity is greater that indicated by standard short-term laboratory tests and measurement techniques. Results from laboratory and field tracer tests show solute nonequilibrium for a reacting ion consistent with a model of diffusion into, and exchange within, grain interiors. These data indicate that a diffusion expression needs to be included in transport codes, particularly for simulation of the transport of radioactive and toxic wastes.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1988

Denitrification in a sand and gravel aquifer

Denitrification was assayed by the acetylene blockage technique in slurried core material obtained from a freshwater sand and gravel aquifer. The aquifer, which has been contaminated with treated sewage for more than 50 years, had a contaminant plume greater than 3.5-km long. Near the contaminant source, groundwater nitrate concentrations were greater than 1 mM, whereas 0.25 km downgradient the central portion of the contaminant plume was anoxic and contained no detectable nitrate. Samples were obtained along the longitudinal axis of the plume (0 to 0.25 km) at several depths from four sites. Denitrification was evident at in situ nitrate concentrations at all sites tested; rates ranged from 2.3 to 260 pmol of N 2 O produced (g of wet sediment) −1 h −1 . Rates were highest nearest the contaminant source and decreased with increasing distance downgradient. Denitrification was the predominant nitrate-reducing activity; no evidence was found for nitrate reduction to ammonium at any site. Denitrifying activity was carbon limited and not nitrate limited, except when the ambient nitrate level was less than the detection limit, in which case, even when amended with high concentrations of glucose and nitrate, the capacity to denitrify on a short-term basis was lacking. These results demonstrate that denitrification can occur in groundwater systems and, thereby, serve as a mechanism for nitrate removal from groundwater.

Massachusetts↗