NEW ENGLAND COASTAL BASINS NAWQA PROGRAM -

GROUND WATER TRENDS AND CHANGES (CYCLE II)

A major focus of the NAWQA Program in its second decade (2002-2012) is on regional- and national-scale assessments of ground-water trends and changes in principal aquifers. Trends and changes of ground-water-quality are assessed within about one-third of the Nation's 62 principal aquifer systems. Results are reported by principal aquifer system, as well as compared across multiple principal aquifer systems for a national perspective.

A national ground-water trends network includes sampling wells initially visited during the Cycle I (1991-2001) as part of (1) major aquifer studies or (2) studies of shallow ground water beneath specific land uses (urban, agriculture, undeveloped, or other). In the New England Coastal Basins, 17 wells were selected to be part of NAWQA's ground-water status and trends network: 5 domestic bedrock wells; 5 monitoring wells in shallow glacial aquifers underlying residential lands; 2 monitoring (reference) wells in shallow glacial aquifers underlying undeveloped (forested) lands; and 5 production wells in the glacial aquifer system. These wells were randomly selected from well networks that were first sampled between 1999 and 2001 during Cycle I. During the second cycle (2002-2012), these 17 wells are part of a national trends network that (beginning in 2003 for the NECB study unit) will be sampled biennially to help determine long-term trends in ground-water quality.

* Well was removed from network in 2007.
** New well was added to network in 2007.