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Prepared in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

Water Levels In Major Artesian Aquifers Of The New Jersey Coastal Plain, 1988

U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 95-4060

By Robert Rosman Pierre J. Lacombe and Donald A. Storck

Abstract

Water levels in 1,251 wells in the New Jersey Coastal Plain, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, and Kent and New Castle Counties, Delaware, were measured from October 1988 to February 1989 and compared with 1,071 water levels measured from September 1983 to May 1984. Water levels in 916 of the wells measured in the 1983 study were remeasured in the 1988 study. Alternate wells were selected to replace wells used in 1983 that were inaccessible at the time of the water-level measurements in 1988 or had been destroyed. New well sites were added in strategic locations to increase coverage where possible. Large cones of depression have formed or expanded in the nine major artesian aquifers that underlie the New Jersey Coastal Plain. Water levels are shown on nine potentiometric-surface maps. Hydrographs for observation wells typically show water-level declines for 1983, through 1989. In the confined Cohansey aquifer, the lowest water level, 20 feet below sea level, was measured in a well located at Cape May City Water Department, Cape May County. Water levels in the Atlantic City 800-foot sand declined as much as 21 feet at Ventnor, Atlantic County, over the 6-year period from the 1983 study to this study for 1988. Water levels in the Piney Point aquifer were as low as 56 feet below sea level at Seaside Park, Ocean County; 45 feet below sea level in southern Cumberland County; and 28 feet below sea level at Margate, Atlantic County. Water levels in the Vincentown aquifer did not change over the 6-year period. The lowest water levels in the Wenonah-Mount Laurel aquifer and the Englishtown aquifer system were 218 feet and 256 feet below sea level, respectively. Large cones of depression in the Potomac- Raritan-Magothy aquifer system are centered in the Camden County area and the Middlesex and Monmouth County area. Water levels declined as much as 46 feet in these areas over the 6-year period.

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DOWNLOAD PLATE-1 (301 KB) - Potentiometric Surface Of The Atlantic City 800-Foot Sand, 1988

DOWNLOAD PLATE-2 (271 KB) - Potentiometric Surface Of The Piney Point Aquifer, 1988

DOWNLOAD PLATE-3 (264 KB) - Potentiometric Surface Of The Vincentown Aquifer, 1988

DOWNLOAD PLATE-4 (264 KB) - Potentiometric Surface Of The Wenonah-Mount Laurel Aquifer, 1988

DOWNLOAD PLATE-5 (287 KB) - Potentiometric Surface Of The Englishtown Aquifer System, 1988

DOWNLOAD PLATE-6 (278 KB) - Potentiometric Surface Of The Upper Aquifer of The Potomac-Raritan-Magothy Aquifer System, 1988

DOWNLOAD PLATE-7 (280 KB) - Potentiometric Surface Of The Middle Aquifer and Undifferentiated Part of The Potomac-Raritan-Magothy Aquifer System, 1988

DOWNLOAD PLATE-8 (263 KB) - Potentiometric Surface Of The Lower Aquifer Of The Potomac-Raritan-Magothy Aquifer System, 1988