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Data Series 861

Prepared in cooperation with the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Baseline Well Inventory and Groundwater-Quality Data from a Potential Shale Gas Resource Area in Parts of Lee and Chatham Counties, North Carolina, October 2011–August 2012

By Melinda J. Chapman, Laura N. Gurley, and Sharon A. Fitzgerald

Thumbnail of and link to report PDF (4.05 MB)Abstract

Records were obtained for 305 wells and 1 spring in northwestern Lee and southeastern Chatham counties, North Carolina. Well depths ranged from 26 to 720 feet and yields ranged from 0.25 to 100 gallons per minute. A subset of 56 wells and 1 spring were sampled for baseline groundwaterquality constituents including the following: major ions; dissolved metals; nutrients; dissolved gases (including methane); volatile and semivolatile organic compounds; glycols; isotopes of strontium, radium, methane (if sufficient concentration), and water; and dissolved organic and inorganic carbon. Dissolved methane gas concentrations were low, ranging from less than 0.00007 (lowest reporting level) to 0.48 milligrams per liter. Concentrations of nitrate, boron, iron, manganese, sulfate, chloride, total dissolved solids, and measurements of pH exceeded federal and state drinking water standards in a few samples. Iron and manganese concentrations exceeded the secondary (aesthetic) drinking water standard in approximately 35 to 37 percent of the samples.

First posted November 12, 2014

For additional information, contact:
Director, North Carolina Water Science Center
U.S. Geological Survey
3916 Sunset Ridge Rd
Raleigh, N.C. 27607
http://nc.water.usgs.gov/

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Suggested citation:

Chapman, M.J., Gurley, L.N., and Fitzgerald, S.A., 2014, Baseline well inventory and groundwater-quality data from a potential shale gas resource area in parts of Lee and Chatham Counties, North Carolina, October 2011–August 2012: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 861, 22 p., https://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ds861.

ISSN 2327-638X (online)



Contents

Acknowledgments

Abstract

Introduction

Data Summary

References Cited

Appendixes 1–4