| description:
|
New Jersey's Ambient Ground Water Quality Network (AGWQN) is a cooperative New New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) program that started in 1983 when it was realized that ambient ground-water-quality data was needed yet lacking in New Jersey. Since it's inception, over 500 existing and installed wells have been sampled. Historically, the chemical and physical parameters analyzed for included: 1) Field parameters such as pH and specific conductance, 2) Major ions, 3) Metals, 4) Nutrients, 5) Radioactivity and 6) Volatile organic compounds. In the recent redesigned shallow well network described below pesticides have also been added. During the first few years an intensive ground-water survey was conducted in a northern valley-fill aquifer system (> 50 wells, data not in this dataset) and some regional sampling was conducted in the Coastal Plain of southern New Jersey. In 1986 a lack of data in the northern bedrock portion of the state was recognized and finalized goals for the network were established. Those goals were: 1) Determine the chemical ranges of ground-water constituents within and between rock types, 2) Determine the geochemical reasons for the differences observed, and 3) Determine long term trends in ambient quality by resampling using an 8 to 20 year cycle. |