This project started with a small seed grant from the Syracuse University Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor in Summer of 2012. Additional funding has provided by NSF and the Syracuse Center of Excellence (SyracuseCoE).
Open-Access, Geospatially-Referenced Water Quality Database
A centerpiece of our project is the development of an open-access, detailed, geospatially-referenced database of surface and groundwater quality, pre-hydraulic fracturing. The database is publically-available online through a web-GIS interface. The point data of water quality is overlain on a state and county map for geospatial reference. For each sampling point, several water quality parameters are posted to the web-based database.
Complete dataset for 2012-2013
The dataset provided here provides water quality and well information for 203 individual wells sampled in the Southern Tier of New York State. This dataset is also provided as supplementary data for the journal article published by Christian et al (2016) in Water Resources Research. The data set includes the following types of information for domestic wells sampled in southern New York State for this study: geographic location (latitude and longitude), year of sample collection, concentrations of a variety of analytes, distances to various features (e.g. faults, gas wells, flow lines), topographic position, water type, well depth and type, and completion geology. Definitions of fields are provided in a worksheet within the Excel data file. When no data are available for a given field, the value is given as -9999. When concentrations are below a given detection limit, the value is given as -5555. The detection limits for chemical data in each year are given within a worksheet within the Excel data file.
Delivery of Water Quality Results to Participating Landowners
All participating landowners receive results of all water quality testing for their well water, with interpretation of the results as they become available. This information is delivered as a data table of raw results and a general summary of what those raw results mean with regard to water quality standards and sources of various ions. If you are interested in having your well water tested and included in our publically-available database, please contact us at (315) 443-6271 or by email (swift@syr.edu).