NEW ENGLAND COASTAL BASINS NAWQA PROGRAM -

STUDY DESIGN OF THE NEW ENGLAND COASTAL BASINS AND MONITORING PLANS

The New England Coastal Basins study cycle I activities consisted of several phases of work, as described below:

The New England Coastal Basins (NECB) Study Unit was one of 15 NAWQA studies that began in Federal fiscal year 1997 (October 1996). Study planning, design and analysis of existing data was done during the first 2 years, which was consistent in all NAWQA studies. After the 2-year planning period, surface and groundwater as well as biological data were collected intensively for 3 years (termed the high-intensity phase, or HIP). A low-intensity phase follows for 7 years, during which water quality is monitored at a selected number of sites and areas assessed during the high-intensity phase. This combination of high and low-intensity monitoring phases allows the NAWQA Program to examine trends in water quality over time. In 2009, the cycle II phase of the NECB NAWQA program begins, starting with one year to plan study activities and followed by a second 4-year HIP phase that is scheduled to begin in 2010.

More details about Cycle I activities below:
October 1998 - September 2001
October 2001 - Present

OCTOBER 1998 - SEPTEMBER 2001

Surface-water monitoring activities

Surface-water-quality monitoring activities in the NECB study unit during 1998-2001 were intended to focus on the following issues:

• Nutrient loading to coastal waters where eutrophication is a major water-quality concern in the New England region; this was accomplished through placement of four integrator sites;
  
• Effects of gradients of urbanization on water quality and aquatic ecosystems; this was accomplished through placement of six indicator sites and participation in a pilot land use gradient study with the NAWQA Ecological Integration Program;
  
• Contamination of bed sediments and fish tissues with an emphasis on mercury; this was accomplished through both the BS&T occurrence survey and a study unit mercury study; and
  

Each of these issues are described below in relation to the main types of surface-water activities (basic/intensive fixed site network, bed sediment and tissue (BS&T) occurrence survey, mercury study, and other special/synoptic surveys).

The majority of surface-water-quality activities occurred in drainages entirely or primarily located in the Northeastern Coastal Zone ecoregion because it contains over 80 percent and 90 percent of all urban and new urban lands, respectively, in the study unit. This translates into greater population and drinking water use in this ecoregion than the other ecoregions. Focusing on streams in the Northeastern Coastal Zone allowed the study to provide more thorough assessments of the effects of new and old urban land uses on stream water quality and aquatic biota. Our Liaison Committee identified these effects as being of great importance and, recently, USEPA-New England Region has made this issue a regional initiative.

Ground-water monitoring activities

Ground water studies by the NECB study have been identified in meetings with Liaison Committee members, discussions with other State and Federal agencies, with NAWQA program specialists, and via retrospective analysis. As a result, the ground water monitoring activities during 1998-2001 focused on the following issues:

• Occurrence and distribution of VOCs in water from in stratified drift and bedrock aquifers.
  
• Effects of recent urbanization on shallow ground water quality in stratified drift deposits in the Boston metro area.
  
• Occurrence and distribution of trace metals (with emphasis on arsenic) and radon in selected bedrock lithogeochemical groups or aquifers.

Three sub-unit surveys and one landuse study were completed to address these issues. Sub-unit surveys were conducted in the stratified drift aquifer, in the calcareous metasedimentary bedrock lithogeochemical group, and in a combination of the felsic igneous and other metasedimentary groups. The urban land use study in the Boston metro area was completed in 1999 and a report summarizing results was published in 2001. A journal article on the occurrence and factors relating to arsenic in NECB bedrok aquifers was published in 2003. (See publications list).

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OCTOBER 2001 to PRESENT

In October 2001, the NECB study unit entered a period of reduced sampling activities known as the Low-Intensive Phase (LIP). For surface-water activities planned for the LIP, the study unit will focus on trends in nutrient and pesticide water quality in four of the nine routine fixed sites: the Charles, Merrimack, Stillwater, and Aberjona Rivers. Water samples are collected monthly at these four sites and analyzed for nutrients, pesticides, sulfate, and suspended sediment. However, starting in October 2004, only the Charles River will continue to be monitored for water quality and at a frequency of once every two months due to a redesign of the NAWQA Surface-Water Trends Sampling program.

For groundwater activites during the LIP, a subset of wells from each of three networks: a land-use study of the effects of development on shallow ground water in the Boston metropolitan area (necblusrc1), a fractured-bedrock aquifer study that focused on arsenic trace-element chemistry (necbsus1), and a study of sand and gravel aquifers througout the study area (necbsus3), will be sampled once every two years to determine trends in ground-water quality for nutrients, major ions, trace elements, VOCs, pesticides, and radon-222. Five wells from each network were selected for resampling in 2003 (see table below). These same 15 wells are scheduled to be sampled again in 2005, 2007, and 2009.