National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) (public)
National Analysis of Trace Elements (public)
Trace Elements National Synthesis internal homepage

Understanding Trace Elements in Ground Water--
Coordinating efforts

This page is intended to help with coordination of NAWQA work on understanding trace elements in ground water during Cycle II. Our intent is to provide a central storage spot for key references, data summaries, study design documents, and contacts for regions where we are currently discussing new & ongoing trace-element work through NAWQA. We've included some links to past studies in Oklahoma, the Ozarks, and the Mid-Atlantic because they're excellent examples of the kind of study the 2001-start Study Units may develop. This is not intended to be a complete national compilation of trace-element research.

Feel free to contribute any new links and information you think may be useful to other Study Units, to the Principal Aquifer coordination teams, or to National Synthesis.

• TE research by geographic area
• The West
• Midwest & Ozarks
• Upper Midwest/Great Lakes
• New England
• Mid-Atlantic
• National
• GD & NRP contacts

Trace-element research by geographic area

The West

Water:

Overview of arsenic across the West:

• Welch, A.H., Lico, M.S., and Hughes, J.L., 1988, Arsenic in ground water of the western United States: Ground Water, v. 26, no. 3, p. 333-347.
  Abstract

Nevada Pilot Study (1987-91)-- Alan Welch

• Welch, Alan H., and Lico, M.S., 1998, Factors controlling As and U in shallow ground water, southern Carson Desert, Nevada: Applied Geochemistry, vol. 13, no. 4, p.521-539.
  Abstract

Willamette Study Unit (1991-95)-- Steve Hinkle

• Hinkle, Stephen R., and Polette, D.J., 1999, Arsenic in ground water of the Willamette Basin, Oregon: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 98-4205, 28 p., 1 plate.
  -- co-op study with Oregon Water Resources Department
• Proposed work on arsenic in 2001-05-- Hinkle and Wentz

San Joaquin Study Unit--

• Fujii, Roger, and Swain, W.C., 1995, Areal distribution of trace elements, salinity, and major ions in shallow ground water, Tulare basin, Southern San Joaquin Valley, California: U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigation Report 95-4048.
• Swartz, R.J., Thyne, G.D., and Gillespie, J.M., 1996, Dissolved arsenic in the Kern Fan San Joaquin Valley, California-- Naturally occuring or anthropogenic:

California interest in co-op work--

• John Izbicki (WRD-San Diego) is working on As in GW on military bases
• CalFed is eager to fund USGS arsenic work at several levels, primarily driven by conjunctive use issues.

Midwest & Ozarks

Water:

Oklahoma Pilot Study (1987-89)

• Parkhurst, David L., Christenson, S., and Breit, G.N., 1996, Ground-water quality Assessment of the Central Oklahoma Aquifer, Oklahoma-- geochemical and geohydrologic investigations: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2357-C, 101 p.
• Schlottmann, Jamie L., Naturally occurring arsenic in the Central Oklahoma aquifer: in Proceedings of the 2001 USGS Workshop on Arsenic in the Environment, Denver, Colorado, 21-22 Feb., 2001.

Ozark Plateaus

• Lee, Lopaka, and Goldhaber, M., The behavior of As in drinking-water aquifers containing Mississippi Valley-Type mineralization: a characterization of the Ozark Plateaus region of the U.S.: in Proceedings of the 2001 USGS Workshop on Arsenic in the Environment, Denver, Colorado, 21-22 Feb., 2001.

Upper Midwest/Great Lakes

Water:

Lower Illinois River Basin Study Unit (1997-2001)-- Kelly Warner

Upper Illinois River Basin Study Unit (1997-2001)-- Kelly Warner

• Warner, Kelly L., Arsenic in shallow and deep glacial drift aquifers-- Illinois: in Proceedings of the 2001 USGS Workshop on Arsenic in the Environment, Denver, Colorado, 21-22 Feb., 2001.
• Warner, Kelly L., May-June 2001, Arsenic in glacial drift aquifers and the implication for drinking water-- Lower Illinois River Basin: Journal of Ground Water, vol. 39, no. 3.
  -- compares public and domestic supplies for arsenic concentrations and looks at the arsenic speciation in deep glacial drift aquifers overlying Paleozoic sediments.
• Warner, Kelly L., 1999, Analysis of nutrients, selected inorganic constituents, and trace elements in water from Illinois community-supply wells: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 99-4152.
  -- in STOP format so you can assess by constituent of interest (including arsenic). Takes a statistical look at all the drinking water in the State of Illinois and compares the Lower Illinois River Basin NAWQA area to the rest of the state (ie., Is the drinking water in the LIRB significantly different from the rest of the State, or is there transferability of data for NAWQA?)

Illinois state agencies are interested in coring the deep stratified drift aquifers.

Lake Erie Study Unit (1997-2001)-- Mary Ann Thomas

White-Miami Study Unit-- Mary Ann Thomas

• Mary Ann has put together a great summary table (MS Word) of existing work in the region

Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources-- Dave Johnson (WDNR)

• WDNR- Bureau of Drinking Water and Groundwater- under " Groundwater Retrieval Network"

Wisconsin Geological & Natural History Survey-- Madeline Gotkowitz & Mike Mudrey

• PowerPoint slides summarizing WDNR & NURE data on arsenic in ground water
  -- Dave Saad, WMIC Study Unit
• Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine-- Well above, trouble below: Arsenic, a trace element once locked in bedrock, is turning up in some Wisconsin wells.

• Schreiber, M.E., Simo, J.A., and Freiberg, P.G. 2000. Stratigraphic and geochemical controls on naturally-occurring arsenic in groundwater, eastern Wisconsin, USA: Hydrogeology Journal.
• Simo, J.A., Freiberg, P.G., and Schreiber, M.E. 1997. Stratigraphic and geochemical controls on the mobilization and transport of naturally-occurring arsenic in groundwater: Implications for water supply protection in Northeastern Wisconsin. Groundwater Research Report WRC GRR-05, University of Wisconsin Water Resources Center, Madison WI, 56 pp.

Michigan-- Drinking Water Initiative (Sheridan Haack) & co-op work (Aichele, Hill-Rowley, Malone)

• Arsenic in ground water of 8 Michigan counties
• Myoung-Jin Kim, Jerome Nriagu, and Sheridan Haack, Carbonate ions and arsenic dissolution by groundwater: Environmental Science & Technology 2000, vol. 34, pp. 3094-3100.
• Haack, Sheridan K., and Treccani, S.L., 2000, Arsenic concentration and selected geochemical characteristics for ground water and aquifer materials in southeastern Michigan: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 00-4171.
• News release-- Low concentrations of arsenic found in ground water in many southeast Michigan counties
• Arsenic, nitrate, and chloride in groundwater, Oakland County, Michigan

Health:

University of Illinois Dept. of Public Health is working with WRD and BRD to develop risk assessment models calibrated with arsenic data collected by NAWQA and other studies. Terri Arnold (WRD) is using the new ESRI Geostatistics Module for this work.

Geologic frameworks:

Bill Cannon (Reston) & Laurel Woodruff (Mounds View, MN)-- geologic (glacial) controls on As release into GW

• Cannon's "Geology and mineral deposits of the Lake Superior region"

Marty Goldhaber (Denver)

New England

Water:

New England Coastal Basins Study Unit (1997-2001)-- Joe Ayotte

Connecticut Study Unit (1991-95)-- Craig Brown

• Brown, Craig J., and Chute, S.K., Arsenic in bedrock wells in Connecticut: in Proceedings of the 2001 USGS Workshop on Arsenic in the Environment, Denver, Colorado, 21-22 Feb., 2001.
• Craig's collection of references on the CONN-New England area (MS Word)

RASA (dates?)-- basic water chemistry

• Rogers, Robert J., 1989, Geochemical comparison on ground water in areas of New England, New York, and Pennsylvania: Ground Water v. 27 no. 5, p.690-712.

Health:

The National Cancer Institute is researching connections between various cancers and trace-element exposure via drinking water. Some of their current work with Joe Ayotte (NECB Study Unit) is summarized in:

• Relation of bladder cancer mortality rates in New England to water use data-- Ayotte

More information on New England epidemiologic studies is in:

• Design of an epidemiologic study of drinking water arsenic exposure and skin and bladder cancer risk in a U.S. population-- Dartmouth College

Geologic frameworks:

Rob Robinson (GD- Reston) & Joe Ayotte-- lithochemical classifications of NECB and CONN Study Units

• Lithogeochemical character of near-surface bedrock in the CONN (Robinson)
• Robinson, Gilpin Rob, Ayotte, J.D., and Ayuso, R.A., 2000, Arsenic in bedrock, ground water, and soils in New England: Eos Transactions, American Geophysical Union, 81 (48), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract H21D-06.
  Abstracts (type "Ayotte" in search window)

Robert Ayuso (GD- Reston)

GSA Northeastern Section, March 2001

• Session 23. Geologic Aspects of Environmental Problems in the Northeast
• Session 25. Hydrogeology and Geochemistry

Mid-Atlantic

Water & anthropogenic sources:

Delmarva Peninsula (1997-2001)-- Tracy Hancock

• Hancock, Tracy C., Denver, J.M., Riedel, G.F., and Miller, C.V., Source, transport, and fate of arsenic in the Pocomoke River Basin, a poultry dominated Chesapeake Bay watershed: in Proceedings of the 2001 USGS Workshop on Arsenic in the Environment, Denver, Colorado, 21-22 Feb., 2001.
• ES&T article

New Jersey Coastal Plain

• Vowinkel, Eric F., Grosz, A.E., Barringer, J.L., Szabo, Z., Stackelberg, P.E., Hopple, J.A., Grossman, J.N., Murphy, E.A., Serfes, M., and Spayd, S., Distribution of arsenic in the environment in New Jersey: in Proceedings of the 2001 USGS Workshop on Arsenic in the Environment, Denver, Colorado, 21-22 Feb., 2001.
• Barringer, Judy L., Szabo, Z., Barringer, T.H., and Holmes, C.W., Mobility of arsenic in agricultural and wetlands soils and sediments, northern coastal plain of New Jersey: in Proceedings of the 2001 USGS Workshop on Arsenic in the Environment, Denver, Colorado, 21-22 Feb., 2001.

National work

Water:

We are acquiring additional data from several state agencies. Our current dataset represents approximately 28,000 wells and springs across the US. (Data from the Wisconsin DNR have not yet been added.)

• Ryker, Sarah J., and Welch, A.H., Arsenic in ground-water resources of the United States-- a new national-scale analysis: in Proceedings of the 2001 USGS Workshop on Arsenic in the Environment, Denver, Colorado, 21-22 Feb., 2001.
• Other national-scale arsenic publications are on the Trace Elements publications page.
• Radionuclides in ground water used for drinking water in the United States: A targeted reconnaissance survey, 1998

National map showing the 75th percentile of arsenic concentration in ground water:
(79Kb, JPEG)

Information on USGS arsenic research in all parts of the US can be found in the Proceedings of the USGS Workshop on Arsenic in the Environment.

GD & NRP Interactions

A number of GD and NRP researchers are interested in joint field work and publications with Study Units and/or National Synthesis. More information on their research interests, as well as additional contact names, can be found in the USGS Arsenic Studies Group membership directory.

Trace Elements National Synthesis internal homepage
National Analysis of Trace Elements (public)
National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) (public)