GROUNDWATER CHARACTERISTICS AT COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY'S BLOOMSBURG CAMPUS, COLUMBIA COUNTY, PA

Groundwater is a vital resource that makes up about 30% of all the Earth’s fresh water. This means that groundwater is an essential source of drinking water as well as an important part of the hydrologic cycle. In order to take full advantage of this resource, it is important to understand and identify its qualities. This project continues work aimed at better understanding the quality and flow of groundwater below Commonwealth University’s Bloomsburg campus in both developed and currently undeveloped areas. One USGS well on the main campus was sampled, along with three recently installed wells and one relict well originally intended for a residential development on upper campus. In situ measurements included pH, turbidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and temperature. Samples were collected via bailer, then stored in 4-liter acid-washed bottles and transported to the laboratory on ice. Triplicate analyses of acidity (Hach method 8203) and alkalinity (Hach methods 8201/8202) were performed on filtered samples. Additional samples were preserved and stored for later triplicate analyses of metals (both filtered and unfiltered) by inductively coupled plasma – optical emission spectroscopy, and common cations and anions by ion chromatography. Water levels in campus wells were substantially higher than previous measurements. Conductivity values for the main campus well, installed in the Silurian Bloomsburg Formation, were substantially higher than those for upper campus wells, which were installed through the Silurian Mifflintown and Keefer Formations and the upper member of the Silurian Rose Hill Formation. At the upper campus field site, a north-facing hillslope, dissolved oxygen and acidity values decreased, and pH and alkalinity values increased from the top of the slope to the bottom, possibly reflecting increasing residence time and changing water quality along flows paths through bedrock containing calcareous shale, limestone, and non-calcareous clastic units.