History and Hydrologic Effects of Ground-Water Use in Kings, Queens, and Western Nassau Counties, Long Island, New York, 1800's through 1997
by Richard A. Cartwright
U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Water-Resources Investigations Report 01-4096
ABSTRACT
Ground-water withdrawals from the aquifers
underlying Kings and Queens Counties varied
temporally and spatially during the 20th century
and caused extreme changes in water levels. The
resultant lowering of water levels during periods
of heavy pumping caused saltwater intrusion in
nearshore areas and the migration of contaminants
from land surface into deep aquifers. The recovery
of water levels in response to countywide
curtailment of pumping has resulted in the
flooding of underground structures. Combined
withdrawals for public and industrial supply in
Kings and Queens Counties were greatest during
the 1930's--about 130 million gallons per day.
During this period, a large cone of depression
developed in the water table in Kings County;
within this depression, water levels were about
45 feet lower than in 1903. All pumping for public
supply was halted in Kings County in 1947, and in
Jamaica (in Queens County) in 1974. Water levels
in Kings County had recovered by 1974 and have
remained similar to those of 1903 since then,
except for minor localized drawdowns due to
industrial-supply or dewatering withdrawals. A
large cone of depression that had formed in
southeastern Queens County before 1974 has now
(1997) disappeared. The estimated combined
withdrawal for public supply and industrial supply
in Kings and Queens Counties in 1996 was only
about 50 million gallons per day.
The water-level recoveries in the water-table
and confined aquifers generally have resulted in
the dilution and dispersion of residual salty and
nitrate-contaminated ground water. The majority
of recently sampled wells indicate stable or
decreasing chloride and nitrate concentrations in
all aquifers since 1983. Organic contaminants
remain in ground water in Kings, Queens, and
Nassau Counties, however; the most commonly
detected compounds in 1992-96 were
tetrachloroethene, trichloroethene, chloroform,
and total trihalomethanes. Water samples from
monitoring wells in Kings County indicate a
greater number of occurrences of these
compounds in the upper glacial aquifer than in the
Jameco-Magothy aquifer, whereas samples from
public-supply wells in Queens County indicated a
greater number of occurrences in the Jameco-
Magothy aquifer than in the upper glacial aquifer.
This distribution suggests that organic
contaminants were not drawn into the deeper
aquifers in Kings County before 1947, when their
use was limited and deep withdrawals were
greatest, and (or) that the longer period of waterlevel
recovery in Kings County than in Queens has
allowed greater degradation, dilution, and
dispersion of any organic contaminants that might
have entered the deep aquifers before the cessation
of pumping in 1947.
Citation: Cartwright, R.A., 2002, History and Hydrologic Effects of Ground-Water Use in Kings, Queens, and Western Nassau Counties, Long Island, New York, 1800's through 1997: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 01-4096, 79 p.
[Full Report, Acrobat PDF
(8.0M)]
Adobe Acrobat's .pdf (portable document file) format can be viewed using the
free Adobe Acrobat Reader
available for DOS, Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX.
Users with visual disabilities can visit this
site for conversion tools and information to help make PDF files accessible.
For more information, contact
U.S. Geological Survey
425 Jordan Rd
Troy, New York 12180
(518) 285-5602
E-mail
|
|
To order copies of printed reports, contact
U.S. Geological Survey
Information Services
Box 25286, Federal Center
Denver, CO 80225
1-888-ASK-USGS
E-mail
|
Return to the New York District Home Page
|
