Design of monitor wells, hydrogeology, and ground-water quality beneath Country Pond, Kingston, New Hampshire

Abstract

Ten monitoring well were installed in May 1993 to collect data on the hydrogeology and ground-water quality beneath Country Pond, in Kingston, New Hampshire. Monitoring wells were installed 4 to 48 feet beneath the pond surface in stratified drift that was up to 40 feet thick. The stratified drift is overlain by up to 35 feet of fine-grained, predominantly organic, lake-bottom sediment. The potentiometric head in the aquifer was at or above the pond surface and up to 0.8 foot above the pond surface at one location. Water-quality analyses detected numerous volatile organic compounds including chloroethane, benzene, dichlorobenzenes, and 1,1-dichloroethane at maximum concentrations of 110, 43, 54, and 92 mg/L, respectively. The maximum concentration of total volatile organic compounds detected in ground water from a monitoring well was 550 mg/L in November 1993. Ground-water samples with high concentrations of volatile organic compounds also had elevated specific conductances indicating the presence of other non-organic contaminants. Water-quality analyses indicate that a plume of contaminated ground water extends at least 300 feet in a northeast direction beneath the pond.