Great Falls of the Passaic River at Paterson, N.J.

           QUICK LINKS

WATER DATA

• StreamStats ()

• Real-time data ()
  • Streamflow ()
  • Groundwater ()
  • Water quality ()
  • Weather ()
  • Tide ()

• NWISWeb for New Jersey (Current and historic data)
  • Streamflow ()
  • Groundwater ()
  • Water quality ()
  • Instantaneous Data Archive (IDA) ()

• WaterWatch for New Jersey
  • Surface-Water Watch ()
  • Groundwater Watch ()
  • Water-Quality Watch ()
  • Flood Watch ()
  • Drought Watch ()

PUBLICATIONS

• • NJ WSC Publications
  • USGS Publications Warehouse
  • NJ Annual Data Report

ABOUT US

• • Maps and directions
  • Employee directory

USGS IN YOUR STATE

USGS Water Science Centers are located in each state.

Organic Wastewater Contaminants in source & finished water - NJA

Project Title: Organic Wastewater Contaminants in source & finished water - NJA
Project Number: LJ))CH8
Project Chief:
Project Start Date: 03-APR-2006
Project End Date: 30-SEP-2011

Project Objectives

The specific objective of the study is to: determine the occurrence, concentration, and seasonal variation of OWCs in finished-water samples from NJAWC’s Elizabethtown Canal Road water-treatment facility.
Results from this sampling study will be paired with the ongoing NAWQA study measuring the same OWCs in raw and finished water at the Raritan-Millstone facility.  The combined data will be used to:
determine how effective conventional and advanced water-treatment methods are at removing OWCs.

Statement of Problem

The frequent occurrence of OWCs in streams, many of which are used as sources for drinking-water supplies, gives rise to concern over the potential for these compounds to occur in drinking water and, thus, the potential for adverse human- health effects due to chronic exposure to these compounds. Limited sampling conducted by the USGS indicate that some OWCs that occur in source streams are capable of surviving conventional water-treatment processes and occurring at low-level concentrations in finished drinking-water supplies (Frick and others, 2001; Stackelberg and others, 2003). To date, however, relatively few studies have been published concerning the occurrence of OWCs in drinking-water supplies or the effectiveness of conventional and advanced water-treatment technologies at removing OWCs from raw-water supplies (Kummerer, 2001; Daughton, 2001).

Strategy and Approach

The objectives of this proposal will be met by collecting samples of finished water from the Canal Road water-treatment facility and analyzing these samples for selected OWCs. Additional analyses for pharmaceuticals will also be conducted on samples collected as part of the NAWQA study from the Raritan-Millstone water-treatment facility. For the purposes of this study it will assumed that the raw water samples collected at the Raritan-Millstone intake are the same as raw water samples at the Canal Road intake, since the latter intake is only about 100 meters downstream of the former. However, because the Canal Road intake is near the confluence of the Millstone River, and may receive Millstone River water during periods of high flow, it will be necessary to collect 3 or 4 samples of raw water from the Canal Road intake during periods of high flow to determine if there are differences in the two water sources.