Water-quality Issues

The glacial aquifer system is used extensively as a source of drinking water for public and domestic supply; therefore, water quality is an issue for water managers, health officials, and private well owners. Many natural contaminants are present in the glacial aquifer system because the source of the aquifer material is from various rock types containing a wide range of contamination sources, such as arsenic, uranium, radon, etc. The unconsolidated nature of the glacial materials makes these deposits potentially susceptible to anthropogenic contamination. Although, the dominant land use over the glacial aquifer system is agricultural, there are major population centers such as Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, Boston, New York, and St. Louis where there are many urban expansion issues. The common water-quality issues across the glacial aquifer system include arsenic, pesticides, and induced infiltration of degraded surface water. Other issues in the glacial aquifer system that are important water-quality issues, but less ubiquitous, include: nitrate, radon, uranium, chloride, and VOCs.

Analysis of several regional water-quality issues are planned:

1. Nutrients and pesticides in ground water supplying domestic wells within a regional aquifer system, northern United States;
2. The association of arsenic in ground water with depth, redox conditions, and ground-water age in varied hydrogeologic settings within the glacial aquifer;
3. Radon and uranium in ground water from glacial and crystalline bedrock aquifers;
4. Geochemical comparison of trace elements in the glacial aquifer system--occurrence and distribution;
5. Hydrochemical regions within the glacial aquifer based on statistical and spatial analysis of ground-water chemistry and related environmental characteristics;
6. Effects of deicing chemicals on ground- and surface-water quality in glaciated parts of the United States.