National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program
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Citation: Ryker, S.J., Nov. 2001, Mapping arsenic in groundwater-- A real need, but a hard problem: Geotimes Newsmagazine of the Earth Sciences, v. 46 no. 11, p. 34-36.
Equal-area map--
Arsenic concentrations found in at least 25% of samples within a moving 50km radius
County map--
Arsenic concentrations found in at least 25% of samples in each county
> Original county map (Welch and others, 2000)
Data map--
31,350 ground-water samples collected in 1973-2001
Arsenic in ground water is largely the result of minerals dissolving from weathered rocks and soils. Several types of cancer have been linked to arsenic in water. In 2001 the US Environmental Protection Agency lowered the maximum level of arsenic permitted in drinking water from 50 micrograms per liter (ug/L) to 10 ug/L.
The USGS has developed maps that show where and to what extent arsenic occurs in ground water across the country. The current maps are based on samples from 31,350 wells. Widespread high concentrations were found in the West, the Midwest, and the Northeast.