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USGS1951

Water resources of southeastern Bucks County, Pennsylvania

This report has been prepared as a contribution to the development of southeastern Bucks County, Pa. It summarizes available information on the water resources of this 90-square mile area and evaluates current supplies. Future development of the area may change both the available quantity and the quality of the water supply. The effective development of the area demands a continuing knowledge of the water used and the potential quantity and quality of water available from both underground and surface sources. The area is strategically important to a great industrial section of the Bast. Its eastern boundary is a 26-mile segment of the Delaware River along the extreme southeastern border of Bucks County, Pa. (fig. 1). The present.population of the area is about 40,000, including 24,800 in Bristol Borough and Township and 6,770 in Morrisville. The area is traversed by both the Pennsylvania and the Reading Railroads and also by U.S. Highways 1 and 13. These are main transportation routes connecting the great market outlets of Philadelphia and New York. The Delaware River'is navigable from Morrisville to the sea. The area is only a short distance upstream from the Port of Philadelphia, which ranks second only to New York as the most important seaport in the United States. The area is mostly flat, open land 10 to 60 feet above mean sea level. It contains several large Industries, concentrated chiefly in the Bristol area (pi. 1). There are also scattered industries in the Morrisville, Langhorne, and Bensalem areas. However, Bucks County retains some of the characteristics of a farming region. Truck farming and gardening are still carried on to a considerable extent. Along Delaware River below Morrisville the mining of sand and gravel is an Important industry. The facts summarized in this report have been accumulated over a period of 25 years or more by Federal, State, and local agencies in connection with Investigations for other purposes. Most of the data used in this report have been obtained by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters, the Pennsylvania Department of Internal Affairs, the Pennsylvania Department of Commerce, and State Planning Board, the City of Philadelphia, the Corps of Engineers, and the Interstate Commission on the Delaware River Basin. This report was prepared in the Water Resources Division of the U.S.Geological Survey by Jack B. Qraham, District Geologist; John W. Mangan, District Engineer; and Walter F. White, Jr., District Chemist, under the general direction of C. G. Paulsen, Chief Hydraulic Engineer.

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USGS1950

Ground-water problems in the Philadelphia area [Pennsylvania]

Large quantities of ground water are used by the Philadelphia Naval Base and many industries in south Philadelphia, as well as by municipalities near Philadelphia in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The areal contact between unconsolidated sand, gravel, and clay strata of the Atlantic Coastal Plain and consolidated rocks of the Piedmont province extends in a northeast-southwest line through central Philadelphia. This line of contact, the so-called Fall Line, sharply separates the area of highly productive sand and gravel aquifers of the Coastal Plain from the less productive bedrock aquifers of the Piedmont Plateau. The daily withdrawal of ground water from sand and gravel in the Philadelphia area, including Bristol, Pa., and Trenton, N. J., is approximately 110 million gallons. Wells around Philadelphia yield an additional 13 million gallons a day from consolidated rocks of the Piedmont province. The Raritan formation of Cretaceous age is the principal aquifer for wells in south Philadelphia and the adjacent Camden area. The large quantity of water pumped and the limited extent of this aquifer in the area provide a potentially serious interstate water problem. Ground-water levels in the strategically important Naval Base area have not declined seriously as yet, but increasing withdrawal planned in adjacent New Jersey is expected to lower water levels in south Philadelphia The Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers are believed to be the chief sources of recharge to the Raritan formation, even though heavy pumping on either side of the Delaware River may be expected to affect water levels on the other side. Recharge appears to be adequate generally for present rates of withdrawal, but further studies are needed for an evaluation of the safe maximum yield of the area. The chemical quality of ground water pumped from the Raritan formation is satisfactory for most purposes, but periodic analyses indicate that the concentration of dissolved solids is increasing. This deterioration of the chemical quality probably is due to the character of the water and bottom sediments of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. Shallow aquifers in south Philadelphia contain large amounts of gases generated by the decay of river silts and city refuse occupying low areas. The States of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, together with the municipalities concerned, are coordinating their efforts for a practical solution to the ground-water problems of the Philadelphia area.

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