A drop of rain that falls near Middletown, Del., may take as long as 14,000 years to seep through the earth and trickle underground into a well several miles away, according to new research by the Delaware Geological Survey (DGS).
The geology and hydrology of the area between Wrangle Hill and Delaware City, Delaware, have been the focus of numerous studies since the 1950s because of the importance of the local groundwater supply and the potential environmental impact of industrial activity. In this report, 490 boreholes from six decades of drilling provide dense coverage, allowing detailed characterization of the subsurface geologic framework that controls groundwater occurrence and flow.
A poster "Modeling Engineered Approaches to Enhance Denitrification under Rapid Infiltration Basins" resulting from a collaborative research project between Paul Imhoff, Maryam Akhavan (UD Civil&Environmental Engineering), A. Scott Andres (DGS), and Stefan Finsterle (Lawrence Berkley National Lab) was presented at the Fall 2012 AGU meeting in San Francisco, CA on Dec. 3.
Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) scientists have uncovered hard proof of faults in northern Delaware, indicating the occurrence of earthquakes millions of years ago.
The Delaware Geological Survey has released the Delaware Geologic Information Resource (DGIR), an online data display tool and map viewer for geologic and hydrologic information, as a "beta" site. DGIR was designed to provide the Delaware professional community with a variety of geoscience data in one application. DGS will continue to refine the both the data and functionality of the website as it is reviewed.
Delaware Geological Survey improving groundwater monitoring efforts with new wells, sampling. Scientists are digging for answers about the amount and quality of water available underground in central Delaware, where ongoing development will put increasing demands on water supplies in the coming decade.
The Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) is installing 7,700 feet of wells at eight sites in southern New Castle and northern Kent counties to improve groundwater-monitoring efforts, supported by a $600,000 grant from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC). Groundwater is the primary source of drinking water south of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and populations there are projected to continue expanding.
Rapid, significant groundwater recharge occurred in response to tropical storms Irene and Lee.a
Tropical storms Irene and Lee caused a 9-1/2 foot rise of the water table in western Sussex County near Laurel. Groundwater levels and temperatures in Qb35-08 were collected with an automated pressure-temperature datalogger system. At the same time, rainfall and soil moisture data were recorded by the DEOS Laurel Airport station located approximately 5 miles from the well.
Scientists will sink more than 1.4 miles of wells into northern Kent County and southern New Castle County aquifers in the coming year, hoping to pump out a flood of new information about groundwater quantity and quality in current and future growth areas.
The Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) currently monitors groundwater levels in a network of wells in Delaware. Long, time-series of water levels in major aquifers serve as critical baseline data for resource management and analyses of aquifer response to pumping, climatic variability, drought hazards, seawater intrusion, and interaction with streams and their ecosystems.