Shallow ground-water flow, water levels, and quality of water, 1980-84, Cowles Unit, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

Book · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6941178

Cohen, D A; Shedlock, R J

The Cowles Unit of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in Porter County, northwest Indiana, contains a broad dune-beach complex along the southern shoreline of Lake Michigan and a large wetland, called the Great Marsh, that occupies the lowland between the shoreline dunes and an older dune-beach complex farther inland. Water levels and water quality in the surficial aquifer were monitored from 1977 to 1984 near settling ponds on adjacent industrial property at the western end of the Cowles Unit. Since 1980, when the settling pond bottoms were sealed, these intradunal lowlands contained standing water only during periods of high snowmelt or rainfall. Water level declines following the cessation of seepage ranged from 6 feet at the eastern-most settling pond to nearly 14 feet at the western-most pond. No general pattern of water table decline was observed in the Great Marsh or in the shoreline dune complex at distances > 3,000 ft east or north of the settling ponds. Since the settling ponds were sealed, the concentration of boron has decreased while concentrations of cadmium, arsenic, zinc, and molybdenum in shallow ground-water downgradient of the ponds show no definite trends in time. Arsenic, boron and molybdenum have remained at concentrations above those of shallow groundwater in areas unaffected by settling pond seepage. 11 refs., 10 figs., 1 tab.

• OSTI ID: 6941178
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540320* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
ARSENIC
BORON
CADMIUM
CONTAMINATION
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ELEMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
FEDERAL REGION V
GREAT LAKES
GROUND WATER
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INDIANA
LAKE MICHIGAN
LAKES
METALS
MOLYBDENUM
MONITORING
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SEMIMETALS
SURFACE WATERS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
USA
WATER
WATER QUALITY
ZINC