Data Series 198


Ground-Water-Quality Data for a Treated-Wastewater Plume Undergoing Natural Restoration, Ashumet Valley, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1994-2004

U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 198

By Jennifer G. Savoie, Richard L. Smith, Douglas B. Kent, Kathryn M. Hess, Denis R. LeBlanc, and Larry B. Barber

A product of the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program


Presentation

This report was published in December 2006 as Data Series 198 CD-ROM. On the World Wide Web (WWW) the report is available for viewing and printing as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. When you click to open the report body, you will be presented with a formatted document with text colored in blue for selecting several large tables, also in PDF format. To open each table, click on its blue link. These PDFs will print out on most printers. The tables are also presented in Excel (.xls) and tab-delimited text (.txt) formats from the table-selector interface; see item 4 below.

1. Cover: low-resolution (Web) front cover PDF (1 page, 9,300 KB)
2. Front: low-resolution (Web) title pages, table of contents, conversions, acronyms PDF (6 pages, 446 KB)
3. Body: low-resolution (Web) report body and references PDF (8 pages, 583 KB)
2+3. Front and Body: low-resolution (Web) composite PDF (14 pages, 876 KB)
4. Table Selector: Menu to open tables quickly (in .pdf, .xls, and .text formats)
2+3+4. Whole Report (excluding cover): Report and all tables PDF (574 pages, 2,123 KB)


Abstract

A plume of contaminated ground water extends from former disposal beds at the Massachusetts Military Reservation wastewater-treatment plant toward Ashumet Pond, and farther southward toward coastal ponds and Vineyard Sound, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Treated sewage-derived wastewater was discharged to the rapid-infiltration beds for nearly 60 years before the disposal site was moved to a different location in December 1995.

Water-quality samples were collected periodically from monitoring wells and multilevel samplers during and after the disposal period to characterize the nature and extent of the contaminated ground water and to observe the water-quality changes after the wastewater disposal ceased. Data are presented here for water samples collected from 1994 through 2004 from 16 wells (at 2 locations) and 14 multilevel samplers (at 9 locations) along a longitudinal transect that extends through one of the disposal beds. Data collected from the treated-wastewater plume are presented in tabular format. These data include field parameters; concentrations of cations, anions, nitrate, ammonium, and organic and inorganic carbon species; and ultraviolet/visible absorbance. The natural restoration of the sand and gravel aquifer after removal of the nearly 60-year-long treated-wastewater source, along with interpretations of the water quality in the treated-wastewater plume on Cape Cod, have been documented in several published reports that are listed in the references.

Disclaimer

No warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the USGS as to the accuracy of the data and related materials and (or) the functioning of the software. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.


Suggested Citation

Savoie, J.G., Smith, R.L., Kent, D.B., Hess, K.M., LeBlanc, D.R., and Barber, L.B., 2006, Ground-water-quality data for a treated-wastewater plume undergoing natural restoration, Ashumet Valley, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1994-2004: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 198, 1 CD-ROM.



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Contacts: Denis R. LeBlanc, Jennifer G. Savoie
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Interfaces authored: December 14, 2006
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