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New York
Subcontractors for the Savannah River Laboratory (SRL) collected at least 5,696 stream-sediment, 5,047 surface-water, and 4,829 ground-water samples from New York as part of the NURE Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (HSSR) program. Samples were collected on a county-by-county basis from the eastern two-thirds of the state between July 1977 and August 1980. The sampled area included portions of the Albany, Binghamton, Elmira, Glens Falls, Hartford, Kingston, Lake Champlain, Ogdensburg, Rochester, Scranton, and Utica 1:250,000-scale quadrangles. The samples were sent to SRL for determinations of uranium and additional elements (16 in sediments and 9 in waters) by Neutron Activation Analysis. SRL was able to analyze 2,899 sediments and 9,863 waters from New York. The analytical and site location data for all New York samples were released in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York Data Report [GJBX-106(82)]. A total of 280 stream-sediment, 235 surface-water, and 443 ground-water samples were collected within the New York state portion of the Rochester quadrangle; of these samples, SRL analyzed only 1 sediment and all 678 water samples.

SRL sent the 2,809 sediment samples from New York state to an unnamed contract laboratory for "Supplemental Analyses." Supplemental analytical determinations for up to 23 elements were reported for 2,803 of these samples in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York Data Report [GJBX-106(82)]. The digital data file accompanying this report does not include any Supplemental Analyses for New York state sediment samples within the Rochester quadrangle.

SRL: Rochester Quadrangle
SRL did not release a separate report for the Rochester quadrangle.

ORGDP: Kingston and Rochester Quadrangles
SRL sent 318 sediment samples from New York state to the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP) for analysis of uranium and 31 additional elements. ORGDP released the analytical data for 318 samples in the Kingston and Rochester Quadrangles GJBX-84(82) Data Report (a total of 277 samples were from the Rochester quadrangle). The site coding information for this data set was summarized in the GJBX-51(82) report.

Gold Analyses
Data for gold analyses of sediments by SRL neutron activation were released in the GJBX-135(82) summary report. The introduction of that report states:

"This report contains previously unreported neutron-activation analyses of gold in sediment samples determined at SRL. These data were not included in the standard SRL NURE data reports because the gold spectrum was not measured in the original analytical procedure and the report format was designed without the gold analyses being included. Gold analyses became available as the analytical procedure was refined, but the report format was not modified to incorporate these data."

Only those sediment samples that had detectable concentrations of gold by neutron activation analysis were given in the GJBX-135(82) report. Sediment samples with concentrations below detection limits were not reported and can only be ascertained by identifying which samples were actually analyzed by neutron activation at SRL.

Summary Tables
Because of the various laboratories and analytical methods used, some SRL samples may have been analyzed once, twice, or not at all. The following table summarizes the analysis of Rochester quadrangle samples.

The following is a list of all sample types collected and reported for NURE studies in the Rochester quadrangle.

These Rochester quadrangle samples were analyzed by one or more of the following methods:

Sediment Samples

• SR1: Savannah River Neutron Activation Analysis - Neutron Counting of sediments for U.
• SR2: Savannah River Neutron Activation Analysis of sediments for Al, Ce, Dy, Eu, Fe, Hf, La, Lu, Mn, Na, Sc, Sm, Th, Ti, V, and Yb. (Note: Au values were reported later for this method.)
• OR2: Supplemental Analyses by Oak Ridge Neutron Activation Analysis of sediments for U.
• OR7: Supplemental Analyses by Oak Ridge Emission Spectrochemical Analysis of sediments for Ag, Al, B, Ba, Be, Ca, Ce, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hf, K, La, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Sc, Sr, Th, Ti, V, Y, Zn, and Zr.

Water Samples

• SR4: Savannah River Neutron Activation Analysis - Neutron Counting of waters for U.
• SR5: Savannah River Neutron Activation Analysis of waters for Al, Br, Cl, Dy, F, Mn, Na, and V. (Note: Mg may also be reported by this method.)

Discussion of the Reformatting Process for Rochester Quadrangle

Sediment Records
The Rochester quadrangle sediment data consist of reformatted records from the New York portions of the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York [GJBX-106(82)] Data Report combined with data from the ORGDP Kingston and Rochester Quadrangles [GJBX-84(82)] Data Report. The following problems were found and addressed during the comparison and reformatting stages for the Rochester quadrangle sediment data:

1. The SRL Supplemental Laboratory and the ORGDP Laboratory each analyzed the same single stream-sediment sample from New York. Because of overlapping data fields, it was necessary to create two data records to preserve all the data.
2. The original ORGDP files for the Kingston and Rochester quadrangles did not include all of the information about the character of the sample location. This missing information includes observations taken at each site on the stream width, depth, and flow, water color, surrounding vegetation, local relief, weather, and possible contaminants. In addition, the longitude coordinate reported in the ORGDP file only had 3 decimal places instead of the 4 decimal places found in the corresponding records from SRL State files. The missing site descriptive data and the complete longitude value were added to ORGDP records from the corresponding SRL State file records. Sources of data and any problems found are described in the REFORMAT comment field.
3. During reformatting, contamination codes for "residential" and "recreation" were found to be missing from each State's CONTAMC field. The presence of one of these two codes was indicated only by a "." (period). The missing codes were assigned a value of "unknown" in the CONTAMC field within the final water data file.
4. The latitude and longitude coordinates for 2 stream-sediment samples collected within Monroe(1) and Wayne(1) Counties in New York were not found in the data during the reformatting process. The records for these 2 samples cannot be retrieved on a geographical basis.
5. Gold concentrations from the GJBX-135(82) report were added to the appropriate sediment records. A value of -0.01 (<0.01 ppm Au) was added to all other sediment samples determined to have been analyzed by SRL neutron activation. This value was chosen because 0.01 is the lowest reported gold concentration in the entire report.

Water Records
The Rochester quadrangle water data consist of reformatted records from the New York portions of the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York [GJBX-106(82)] Data Report. The following problems were found and addressed during the comparison and reformatting stages for the Rochester quadrangle water data:

1. Analytical data for 5 surface-water samples from New York were not included in the original digital data file, but were found in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York [GJBX-106(82)] Data Report. These samples were manually entered and are included in the final reformatted digital data file.
2. The original NURE format for surface-water files did not include much information about the character of the sample location. This missing information includes observations taken at each site on the stream width, depth, and flow, water color, surrounding vegetation, local relief, weather, and possible contaminants. This information is given in records for stream-sediment samples that were collected at the same locations. The available site descriptive information for stream-water sites were compared with the corresponding stream-sediment site records. The missing site descriptive data were then added to stream-water records from the corresponding stream-sediment sample records. Sources of data and any problems found are described in the REFORMAT comment field.
3. The latitude and longitude coordinates for 7 water samples collected within Genesee(1), Monroe(3), and Wayne(3) Counties in New York were not found in the data during the reformatting process. The records for these 7 samples cannot be retrieved on a geographical basis.

Download The Data

The NURE HSSR data are now available online in two databases: The sediment database (also includes data for soils and some rocks) at http://tin.er.usgs.gov/nure/sediment/ and the water database at http://tin.er.usgs.gov/nure/water/. From these two web sites, NURE HSSR data can be selected, examined, summarized, and downloaded by political boundaries (State and County), by quadrangle (1:250,000-scale, 1:100,000-scale, and 1:63,360-scale for Alaska or 1:24,000-scale for the Lower 48 States), and by hydrologic unit (drainage region, subregion, river basin, or sub-basin). Selected data can be downloaded as a dBase file, a shapefile, an HTML table, or ASCII text (tab- or comma-delimited).

Rochester Quadrangle Sediment Data - 279 records
Rochester Quadrangle Water Data - 678 records

Notes for Data Users

In the eastern United States, SRL collected samples primarily by county. Often, not all counties within a quadrangle were completely sampled. Sample coverage of the U.S. lands in the Rochester quadrangle is nearly complete and includes samples from Cayuga, Genesee, Jefferson, Monroe, Onondaga, Ontario, Oswego, Seneca, and Wayne Counties in New York. The urban areas of Rochester and Syracuse don't appear to have any samples and no samples were collected from the parts of the Rochester quadrangle that include Canadian lands or Lake Ontario. The laboratory and analytical methods used also may vary by county such that adjacent counties often have very different analytical coverage.

Three sediment samples within the Rochester quadrangle were not analyzed by any of the various laboratories. The following table summarizes the locations of those unanalyzed samples.

Other NURE Geochemical Data for the Rochester Quadrangle

None found.

Rochester Quadrangle NURE Bibliography

• Cook, J.R., Fay, W.M., and Sargent, K.A., 1982, Data report: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York: E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Savannah River Laboratory, Aiken, S.C., SRL Internal Doc. DPST-81-146-26, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-106(82), 44 p.
• Fay, W.M., and Cook, J.R., 1982, Gold analyses by neutron activation from SRL NURE samples: E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Savannah River Laboratory, Aiken, S.C., SRL Internal Doc. DPST-81-141-38, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-135(82), 45 p.
• Uranium Resource Evaluation Project, 1982, Hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance basic data for Rochester and Kingston quadrangles, New York: Union Carbide Corporation, Nuclear Division, Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Oak Ridge, Tenn., K/UR-439, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-84(82), 31 p.
• Uranium Resource Evaluation Project, 1982, Supplement to hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance basic data reports K/UR-405 and K/UR-408 through K/UR-443 [GJBX-52(82) through GJBX-88(82)]: Union Carbide Corporation, Nuclear Division, Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Oak Ridge, Tenn., K/UR-412, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-51(82), 25 p.

Links Within Open-File Report 97-492

Back to New York NURE data
Frequently Asked Questions Concerning NURE Data
Home Page: USGS National Geochemical Database - NURE HSSR data

Page written by Steven M. Smith.
Contact: Steven M. Smith (smsmith@usgs.gov)
Version 1.41: February 23, 2006

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