MONITORING GROUNDWATER PROPERTIES WITHIN A WETLAND ON THE IPFW CAMPUS

Groundwater testing and monitoring is a crucial part of environmental management for urban and rural settings. This study examines the water chemistry in a well field located at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) campus in order to determine the contaminant and thus the water quality in the campus. The well field at the IPFW campus is located by a creek that drains into the St. Joseph River. Nitrate, nitrite pH, temperature, conductivity, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen and head elevation were measured over a 56 day testing period (late September – mid November) in 15 of the 20 installed wells. Soil samples were also collected from a burrow pit at the location to determine the hydraulic conductivity of the soil.

The hydraulic conductivity (k value) was obtained using Hazen method and aided the determination of beds. The nitrate and nitrite levels ranged from 0.0 – 20.9 and 0.0 – 0.029 mg/L, respectively. A few readings were above EPA regulated contaminant levels for drinking water (10 and 1.0 mg/L for nitrate and nitrite respectively. Trends of nitrate and nitrite often show an inverse relationship, suggesting that nitrate is being reduced to nitrite via iron content and/or organic activity. There is a positive correlation between the head elevation and dissolved oxygen (DO) with the seasonal decrease in temperature. Grid wells that have elevations varying less that one inch are assumed to penetrate the same layer and head differences of these wells were used to determine the flow direction, which is northwest. This is in agreement with previous studies under the assumption that the creek is an influent stream and receives runoff and drainage from the IPFW campus. New data will be presented as it is an ongoing research project.