Arsenic, metals, and nutrients in runoff from two detention basins to Raccoon Creek, New Jersey Coastal Plain, 2008

Julia L. Barringer; Zoltan Szabo; Jennifer L. Bonin; Craig K. McGee

doi:10.3133/sir20115017

Home/Archive/USGS

USGS · sir20115017

Arsenic, metals, and nutrients in runoff from two detention basins to Raccoon Creek, New Jersey Coastal Plain, 2008

Julia L. Barringer·Zoltan Szabo·Jennifer L. Bonin·Craig K. McGee

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Arsenic (As) concentrations in the waters of Raccoon Creek in southern New Jersey commonly exceed the State\'s Surface Water Quality Standard (SWQS) for freshwater of 0.017 microgram per liter (mu or ug/L). In order to assess contributions of As from residential runoff to the creek, samples of runoff water were collected from a detention basin in each of two residential developments underlain by different geologic formations and at the outlets of those basins. Samples of streamwater also were collected from Raccoon Creek adjacent to the developments. The samples were analyzed to determine concentrations of As, selected metals, organic carbon, and nutrients. Soil samples in and downgradient from the basins also were collected and analyzed. Concentrations of As in unfiltered water samples of runoff from the basin underlain by glauconitic clays generally were higher (up to 4.35 mu or ug/L) than in runoff from the basin underlain by predominantly quartz sands and silts (up to 2.68 mu or ug/L). Chromium (Cr) concentrations also were higher in runoff from the basin underlain by glauconitic clays than in runoff from the basin underlain by quartz sand and silt. In addition, Cr concentrations were higher in the glauconitic soils than in the quartz-rich soils. Metals such as aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), lead (Pb), and manganese (Mn) in the runoff and in the streamwater were mostly in particulate form. Arsenic, most metals, and phosphorus (P) however, were mostly in dissolved form in runoff but in particulate form in the streamwater. Total organic carbon concentrations in the runoff ranged from about 10 to nearly 16 milligrams per liter (mg/L). Given such levels of organic carbon and strong correlations between concentrations of some metals and organic carbon, it may be that many of the metals were complexed with dissolved organic carbon and transported in that form in the runoff. Although underlying geologic materials and soils appear to be major contributors of As to the streamwater, As also could have been contributed from lead arsenate pesticide residues. The residential development underlain by quartz-rich sediments formerly had been an orchard where such pesticides may have been used. The substantial inputs of As to runoff at this site may be attributable to this former land use, although Pb concentrations were about the same in runoff from both sites. The streamwater at both sites, however, contained Pb concentrations well above those in runoff, indicating that there are additional inputs of Pb, perhaps from roadside soils, upstream from the two sampling sites in this study. Positive relations between concentrations of As and some metals with dissolved organic carbon in runoff and streamwater indicate that complexation with organic carbon may provide a mechanism by which these constituents can be transported. Sorption of As, Pb, and P to Fe hydroxides may be indicated by the observed positive relation of particulate As, Pb, and P to particulate Fe, however, representing an additional mechanism for transport of these constituents.

Explore related subjects

Scientific Investigations Report Report

Source-reported bounding extent: 39.666666666666664° to 39.833333333333336° latitude; -75.41666666666667° to -75.13333333333334° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

Julia L. Barringer, Zoltan Szabo, Jennifer L. Bonin, Craig K. McGee. 2011. Arsenic, metals, and nutrients in runoff from two detention basins to Raccoon Creek, New Jersey Coastal Plain, 2008. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20115017

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related USGS reports

USGS2026

Analysis of groundwater geochemistry in the Lansing, Michigan, area

Groundwater resources in the Lansing, Michigan, area are protected by a wellhead protection plan, but previous studies have indicated that groundwater in this area may be susceptible to surface contamination. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Lansing Board of Water & Light, analyzed geochemical and aquifer characteristics to assess the potential for contamination of groundwater resources. Recharge age categories were determined from tritium concentrations for some wells, and by using ternary diagrams and principal component analysis for other wells. These age classifications, combined with hydrogeologic and geochemical data, were analyzed by using statistical methods to identify trends that may indicate areas of increased groundwater susceptibility. Wells with modern recharge tended to have higher sodium, chloride, and chloride:bromide ratios than did wells with mixed recharge, suggesting greater surface connectivity and potential influence from anthropogenic sources such as road salt. In contrast, wells in the mixed age category exhibited more stable geochemistry and lower constituent concentrations. Classification and regression tree models identified aquifer geometry—particularly the thickness of the uppermost bedrock unit and presence of confining layers—as key predictors of recharge age and geochemical indicators. The trends identified from these analyses could help to reveal locations in the Lansing area that are among the most susceptible to contamination.

Scientific Investigations Report↗

USGS2026

Evaluating the number of realizations (train-test splits) necessary to ensure robust estimates of conventional hydrothermal resource favorability using Monte Carlo cross-validation, the Great Basin, Western USA

Supervised machine learning approaches used to produce favorability maps in resource assessments commonly partition an input dataset into training and testing subsets (that is, through train-test splits). However, if a single split is not representative of underlying resource conditions, the resulting favorability map may be biased, particularly with sparse or heterogeneous datasets. To mitigate the potential for unrepresentative favorability maps, recent works by U.S. Geological Survey researchers have used Monte Carlo cross-validation to implement a large number ( n) of randomized train-test splits to produce n realizations. The realizations are then aggregated using cell-wise median predictions to produce the resulting final favorability map, recognizing that the median will remove extreme values that might have been estimated from a comparatively few unrepresentative realizations. Theoretically, the median prediction at every cell converges to a single estimate as n approaches infinity, and the question addressed herein is: How many realizations are necessary to get a robust estimate (that is, an estimate unaffected by additional realizations)? Therefore, convergence metrics are described to identify the number of train-test splits and realizations needed to make a reliable map using the data and supervised machine learning workflow for conventional hydrothermal resource assessment of the Great Basin of the Western United States. For this study, robust prediction occurs with n approximately equal to 600 realizations, and smaller ensembles (for example, n is approximately equal to 200 or even 100) may be suitable during preliminary or exploratory analyses. Although the resulting threshold numbers will vary depending on the data and modeling approach used, the convergence metrics proposed and applied herein are applicable to other supervised machine learning studies that use Monte Carlo cross-validation.

California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah↗

USGS2026

Groundwater budget for the Portneuf River Basin, southeastern Idaho

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Idaho Department of Water Resources, developed the first groundwater budget for the upper Portneuf River Basin in southeastern Idaho, a tributary of the Snake River. A groundwater budget for the Portneuf River Basin supports water resource and administrative management decisions within the basin and for downstream users of the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer. The analysis quantifies inflows, outflows, and residuals for an aquifer system defined by the Idaho Department of Water Resources under three recent precipitation conditions: an average year (2016), a dry year (2021), and a wet year (2023). The budget was calculated for the basin and for two subbasins delineated by the U.S. Geological Survey streamgage Portneuf River at Topaz, Idaho (13073000): the above Topaz subbasin, which includes the Portneuf-Gem valley, and the below Topaz subbasin, which includes Marsh Valley. Aquifer inflows include mountain-front recharge; areal recharge; recharge from applied water, including recharge from irrigation, canal seepage, and effluent returns; groundwater flow into the basin; and reservoir seepage. Outflows include groundwater pumping for agricultural, municipal, and domestic uses; subsurface outflow through the Portneuf gap; and discharge to streams as base flow. Estimated annual inflows for the full basin ranged from 116,880 acre-feet in 2021 to 154,880 acre-feet in 2023, and outflows ranged from 132,190 acre-feet in 2016 to 158,490 acre-feet in 2023. Basinwide residuals, the change in storage plus uncertainty, were −2,410 acre-feet in 2016, −18,410 acre-feet in 2021, and −3,610 acre-feet in 2023, and each subbasin had a mixture of negative and positive residuals. These basinwide results, interpreted as change in storage plus water-budget uncertainty, indicate minor net losses that increase with dry conditions, consistent with well depth-to-water measurements indicating gradual multi-decadal declines. Patterns in subbasin residuals are driven by irrigation practices and surface-water management; for example, the above Topaz subbasin relies more on groundwater for irrigation, resulting in more negative residuals during dry years. In contrast, the below Topaz subbasin depends more on surface water, producing positive residuals during dry years because of irrigation losses and canal seepage. The analyses for both subbasins indicate decades-long groundwater declines, which agree with the overall negative residuals calculated. The largest sources of uncertainty include climate inputs (precipitation and evapotranspiration) and poorly constrained components such as groundwater inflow and tributary stream infiltration. These findings provide insight into how climatic variables and irrigation practices affect groundwater inflows and outflows within the Portneuf River Basin.

Idaho↗